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OTHER  BOOKS  BY  DR.  MILLER 


THE  LIFE  EFFICIENT 

12mo.     Net,  $1.00 

CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

Crown  8vo.     Net,  $1.00 


PROWLING  ABOUT 
PANAMA 


BY 

GEORGE  A.  MILLER 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 

ALICE  AND  A.  W.  BEST 

FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
GEORGE  A.  MILLER 


DEDICATED 

TO  THE 

YOUNG  PEOPLE  OF  THE  EPWORTH  LEAGUES 

OF  THE 

CALIFORNIA  CONFERENCE 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

FOREWORD 11 

I.   WHERE  THE  PROWLING  is  GOOD 13 

II.  THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES 26 

III.  PICTURESQUE  PANAMA 41 

IV.  A  CITY  OF  GHOSTS 55 

V.  THE  SPELL  OF  THE  JUNGLE 65 

VI.   LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM 76 

VII.   THE  INTERIOR 93 

VIII.  ECONOMIC  WASTE 109 

IX.   PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS 122 

X.  KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS 144 

XL   THE  FAMLY  TREE 160 

XII.   LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART 178 

XIII.  THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD 193 

XIV.  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 214 

XV.  PROWLING  INTO  THE  FUTURE  .                          .  235 


48406? 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Faithful  Mule  is  the  Ship  of  the  Jungle 14 

The  Homeward  Way  at  Nightfall 15 

An  Empire  in  the  Making 19 

A  Few  Good  Roads  on  the  Zone 21 

Church  at  Nata,  Oldest  Inhabited  Town  in  New  World, 

Founded  1520 24 

The  Jungle  is  the  Place  for  Picnics 27 

Even  Farm  Cabins  Are  Picturesque  in  Costa  Rica . 30 

Ruins  of  Old  Panama,  the  Most  Romantic  Spot  in  the  New 

World 33 

Indian  Woman  at  the  Fountain 36 

Baths— Wholesale  and  Retail 43 

Convent  Door 46 

Official  Lottery  in  Bishop's  House,  Panama 48 

Ruin  of  Famous  Flat- Arch  Church 52 

Eighth-Grade  Room,  Panama 53 

Convent  Garden 56 

Romantic  Old  Convents  Survive 58 

Ruined  Tower  at  Old  Panama 60 

Costa  Rica  Trapiche,  or  Sugar  Mill 62 

Papaya  Trees 66 

Bananas  and  Sugar  Cane 68 

Cacao  Pods 70 

Proposed  Location  for  Rest  Cure 73 

Picturesque  Jungle  Towns 78 

Tortillas  are  Staple 80 

Jungle  Folk 81 

"The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night" 82 

Church  Bells  of  Arraijan,  Cast  1722 85 

First-Grade  Room,  Panama 89 

The  Beautiful  Savanas  of  Costa  Rica 95 

Shipping  Costa  Rica  Vegetables  to  Panama 99 

Good  Pineapples  Grow  Here 103 

Dead  Timber  in  Gatun  Lake  Now  Covered  with  Orchids 105 

Interior  Meat  Market Ill 

The  Flavor  of  Old  Spain 112 

Taking  the  Rest  Cure 113 

The  Oxen  Stage  of  Agriculture 115 

9 


10  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Wayside  Sellers  of  Fruit 117 

The  House  Beside  the  Road 118 

Wireless  at  Darien 123 

Farm  Grist  Mill,  Costa  Rica 126 

Happy  Kindergartners,  Panama   129 

Young  Costa  Rica  is  Enterprising 131 

Wooden  Sugar  Mill  and  Its  Maker 133 

Public  Market,  David 137 

Indian  Boy  Goes  to  School 145 

Washday  in  Costa  Rica 147 

Riverside  Plantation 151 

Jungle  Products 154 

San  Bias  Indian  Chief 161 

No  Race  Suicide  Here 162 

Jungle  Guide 164 

One  Use  for  a  Head 165 

Beggars  and  Cathedrals 167 

Far  from  the  Madding  Crowd 169 

Seawall  Church  and  School,  Panama 171 

Mandy  Did  Her  Share 173 

The  Canal  Digger 173 

The  Town  Pump,  Interior  Village 175 

Wayside  Cemetery  in  the  Jungle 176 

Coconuts— So  Good  and  So  High 180 

Boiling  "Dulce"— Crude  Sugar 183 

Washing  by  the  River 189 

Costa  Rica  Farm  House 194 

Bananas  Thirty  Feet  High 197 

San  Bias  Indians  Have  "Poker  Faces" 198 

Where  Styles  Molest  No  More 201 

Chinese  Always  Start  a  School 205 

"Schooldays" 205 

Three  in  a  Row 212 

Mother,  Home,  and— the  Simple  Life 212 

Construction  Days  in  Culebra-Gailard  Cut 217 

Gatun  Spillway,  Key  to  the  Canal 224 

Cristobal  Streets 227 

Fat  Cattle  of  Cocte 228 

Enchanted  Islands  in  Gatun  Lake 231 

Panama  Public  Water  Works,  Interior  Country 237 

A  Jungle  Cathedral 242 

Shoe-bills  Are  Small..                                                                      .  248 


FOREWORD 

THE  fine  art  of  prowling  may  be  achieved,  but 
is  more  often  a  gift  of  those  to  the  manner  born. 
Professional  globe-trotters  are  not  prowlers. 
They  are  often  the  victims  of  their  own  sense  of 
superiority.  Personally  conducted  tours  are 
little  help  to  real  prowling,  and  professional 
guides  reduce  the  sight-seer  to  a  machine  for 
receiving  "canned"  information  with  gaping 
mouth,  while  with  his  free  hand  he  extracts  tips 
from  his  reluctant  pocket. 

Prowling  is  an  instinct,  a  sixth  sense  of  loca- 
tions and  values.  The  prowler  must  have  intui- 
tion and  imagination  and  perseverance  and  his- 
torical perspective,  but  with  these  he  must  have 
something  else — that  inner  vision  that  finds 
values  in  everything  human.  The  expert  ex- 
plorer will  find  something  interesting  in  Sahara, 
but  almost  any  prowler  will  have  a  rare  time  in 
Panama. 

Probably  no  spot  in  the  New  World  has  served 
as  the  location  of  so  many  kinds  of  events  and  in- 
terests as  this  narrow  neck  of  land  between  two 
continents.  Brief  histories  of  it  have  been  well 
written,  and  the  visitor  should  by  all  means  read 
at  least  one  of  them.  It  remains  for  some  seer 
yet  to  tell  worthily  the  story  of  the  four  centuries 

11 


12  FOREWORD 

that  link  the  last  discovery  of  the  world's  greatest 
explorer  with  the  final  achievement  of  the  world's 
most  skillful  builders. 

Panama  furnishes  an  epitome  of  history. 
Nearly  everything  that  has  ever  happened  any- 
where in  the  world  has  had  some  counterpart  or 
parallel  in  Panama,  and  of  the  coming  results  of 
the  new  forces  now  released  on  the  Isthmus  time 
alone  can  be  the  measure. 

This  book  makes  no  claims  to  consistency. 
Where  contradictory  characteristics  abound  and 
motives  are  much  mixed,  both  sides  may  be  faith- 
fully set  forth,  but  to  reconcile  them  is  a  difficult 
matter.  There  will  be  no  unified  and  consistent 
life  on  the  Isthmus  until  the  advancing  civiliza- 
tion now  there  outgrows  some  of  its  present  traits. 

Can  one  tell  the  truth  about  Panama  and  re- 
turn to  the  Isthmus  ?  That  remains  to  be  proven. 
Much  depends  on  the  spirit  of  the  prowler.  As 
well  ask  whether  one  can  tell  the  truth  about  Chi- 
cago and  be  welcome  to  that  metropolis.  Prob- 
ably Chicago  would  pay  no  attention  to  the  com- 
ment, but  Panama  might  take  enough  interest  to 
notice. 

This  is  not  a  guidebook.  Heaven  forbid !  It  is 
merely  a  few  notes  of  a  prowler  who  found 
Panama  interesting. 


CHAPTER  I 
WHERE  THE  PROWLING  IS  GOOD 

PANAMA  is  the  great  American  curiosity  shop. 
The  first  city  founded  by  explorers  in  the  New 
World,  the  oldest  town  in  America  inhabited  by 
white  men,  the  most  conglomerate  mixture  of 
humanity  on  earth  are  in  Panama.  The  bloodiest 
tale  of  modern  history,  the  most  romantic  story 
of  American  exploration,  the  greatest  engineer- 
ing achievement  of  man  all  center  in  Panama. 

If  there  be  any  interest  in  congested  and  swel- 
tering humanity,  any  concern  for  the  problems  of 
social  uplift  and  personal  reaction,  Panama  is  the 
laboratory  for  study.  LThe  cleanest  and  healthi- 
est towns  on  earth  are  on  the  Canal  Zone,  and  the 
last  word  in  shiftlessness  and  inefficiency  is  also 
here.  Superstition  and  science,  rascality  and 
rhapsody,  efficiency  and  squalor,  graft  and  honor, 
all  mixed  and  mingled — this  is  Panama.  Jungle 
and  plain,  valley  and  coast,  tropic  heat  and  moun- 
tain paradise,  fever-swamps  and  ideal  sanitation, 
engineering  success  and  life  in  the  primitive  open 
— these  too  are  in  Panama. 

Strange  and  mysterious  traces  are  still  found 
of  the  days  when  the  gold  of  Peru  was  carried 
across  the  Isthmus  on  pack  trains.  Later  the 

13 


14     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

gold-seekers  of  California  fought  their  way  along 
the  route  of  the  present  Canal  and  found  ships 
on  the  west  coast  for  the  mines  of  Eldorado.  If 
any  survivors  still  live,  they  can  tell  stirring  tales 


THE    FAITHFUL   MULE   18    THE    SHIP    OF    THE   JUNGLE 

of  the  days  when  it  was  well  worth  a  life  to  carry 
gold  to  Aspinwall. 

It  all  began  with  Columbus  himself  when  he 
sailed  into  Almirante  Bay  and  thought  that  he 
had  found  in  Chiriqui  Lagoon  the  long-sought 
passage  to  India.  What  he  really  found,  what 
was  to  follow  his  discovery,  he  could  not  have 
dreamed,  adventurer  that  he  was!  Almirante 


WHERE  PROWLING  IS  GOOD    15 


(Admiral),  Cristobal  (Christopher),  and  Colon 
(Columbus)  remain  to-day  to  remind  us  of  the 
illustrious  explorer  who  first  set  foot  on  Panama. 
But  Columbus  gave  us  Panama,  and  never  knew! 
It  was  Balboa  who  first  saw 
the  waters  of  the  wide  Pa- 
cific from  the  summits  of  the 
Isthmian  hills.  It  was 
Pizarro  who  packed  across 
the  fifty  miles  of  jungle  the 
timbers  of  the  ships  which 
he  put  together  on  the  beach 
of  the  Pacific  and  with 
which  he  discovered  Peru, 
after  indescribable  hard- 
ships and  repeated  attempts 
to  find  the  "hill  of  gold." 

On  the  Pacific  side  of  the 
Isthmus  was  founded  Old 
Panama,  the  first  city  of  the 
New  World,  where  to-day 
majestic  ruins  stand,  a  fit- 
ting shrine  for  the  reverent 
pilgrim.  And  between  Old 
Panama  and  Porto  Bello 
stretches  the  famous  Paved  Trail  of  Las  Cruces. 

Along  this  trail  lurked  the  trouble-hunters  and 
makers  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. For  two  hundred  years  the  tinkle  of  the 
bells  of  the  gold-laden  pack  mules  was  never 


THE    HOMEWARD    WAY    AT 
NIGHTFALL 


16     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

silent.  On  this  jungle  path,  when  stolen  gold  was 
carried  by  the  sackful,  trouble  was  certain  to  fol- 
low. The  big  trail  was  a  pathway  of  blood,  rob- 
bery, and  intrigue.  All  the  worst  passions  and 
performances  of  depraved  men  turned  loose  and 
ran  riot  for  a  century  and  a  half.  These  were  the 
days  when  life  was  raw  and  rough  at  Panama. 

To-day  the  old  trail  is  covered  with  palms  and 
decorated  with  orchids.  Occasional  stones  trace 
the  outline  of  the  ancient  highway.  Where  the 
drunken  and  ribald  song  of  the  muleteer  rose 
about  the  camp-fire  at  night,  canaries  and  par- 
rakeets  now  chatter  and  sing.  The  soft  caress 
of  the  jungle  breeze  whispers  no  tales  of  the  days 
when  the  trail  could  be  traced  by  the  bleaching 
bones  that  lined  the  right-of-way.  The  jungle  is 
nature's  great  blotter  for  the  sins,  sorrows,  and 
sufferings  of  an  age  now  forgotten — but  it  all 
happened  in  Panama. 

Panama  is  not  all  jungle.  To  the  westward 
stretch  great  savannas,  between  the  mountains 
and  the  sea;  miles  and  miles  of  smooth  and  level 
country  open,  fair  and  well  watered,  only  waiting 
for  the  tickle  of  American  cultivation  to  laugh  a 
crop.  It  makes  a  real  estate  man's  fingers  itch; 
but  that  is  another  story.  Where  a  little  cultiva- 
tion has  been  inadvertently  perpetrated  on  the 
land,  tall  sugar  cane,  luscious  fruits,  and  tooth- 
some vegetables  attest  the  quality  of  the  soil  and 
the  climate. 


WHERE  PROWLING  IS  GOOD    17 

Frequent  rivers,  numerous  inlets  on  the  coast 
line,  occasional  interesting  native  towns,  old 
churches,  impossible  "roads,"  meandering  trails, 
scattered  herds  of  fat  cattle,  a  few  sugar  mills, 
numerous  trapiches  (cane  grinders),  fenced  pa- 
treros  (pastures),  and  everywhere  the  mixed- 
blood  natives — this  is  Panama  in  the  western 
provinces. 

Panama  westward  is  not  all  a  flat  country,  how- 
ever. Eleven  thousand  feet  into  the  sky  rises  the 
Chiriqui  volcano,  and  a  little  farther  west  in  the 
same  range  stands  Pico  Blanco  (White  Top),  at 
about  the  same  height.  Thrown  across  the  slopes 
of  these  lofty  summits  and  half  way  up  lies  a 
great  and  beautiful  country,  with  a  climate  such 
as  might  have  been  coveted  for  the  site  of  Eden. 
Cool,  comfortable,  and  salubrious  is  this  garden 
of  the  gods.  In  all  the  so-called  temperate  zone 
no  land  yet  discovered  offers  three  hundred  and 
fifty  days  per  year  of  comfort  and  health.  To  be 
sure,  vacation  pilgrims  from  the  warmer  coast 
country  sometimes  make  mention  of  cold  feet 
upon  first  reaching  this  Mecca  in  the  mountains, 
but  nobody  finds  fault  on  that  account.  Most  of 
them  like  it. 

Chiriqui  is  a  garden  spot.  Wide  ranges  of 
fertile  soil,  gentle  slopes  rolling  back  against  the 
mountain  ranges,  good  harbors  along  the  coast, 
and  occasional  plantations  with  American  im- 
provements, mark  the  country  as  the  coming 


18    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

granary  of  the  Republic.  Rolling  slopes  and 
blossoming  fields,  with  a  background  of  the 
never-failing  come-and-go  of  the  lights  and 
shades  on  the  face  of  the  mountains,  form  a  pic- 
ture not  to  be  forgotten.  Always  the  summits 
and  the  clouds  seem  to  be  playing  leapfrog  in  the 
sky,  and  the  whole  upper  world,  looking  down  on 
the  puny  traveler,  seems  ever  trying  to  say  some- 
thing and  never  quite  uttering  its  meaning.  And 
he  who  looks  and  listens  finds  himself  trying  to 
say  it  for  them,  and  never  can  he  find  the  word. 
Perhaps  some  poetic  soul  will  yet  look  upon  these 
heights  and  tell  us  what  it  is  they  are  muttering. 

The  coast  line  of  western  Panama  is  a  fascinat- 
ing shore.  Like  enchanted  islands  rise  bits  of 
forest  out  of  the  sea  and  any  of  them  might  be  the 
castle  site  of  the  lord  of  the  main. 

In  and  out  between  their  wooded  shores  the 
steamer  winds  its  way  till  it  dodges  in  through 
some  narrow  "boca"  to  find  a  tortuous  channel 
leading  to  a  landing  place,  that  must  always  be 
approached  at  the  whim  of  the  tide.  Whether 
there  be  a  thousand  islands  or  not,  no  one  knows ; 
but  I  have  stood  on  the  steamer  deck  and  counted 
fifty  in  sight  at  a  time,  while  other  fifties  rose  up 
to  meet  us  as  those  nearby  dropped  astern.  Here 
and  there  some  lonely  light  blinks  its  vigil 
through  the  night,  and  the  swells  of  the  Pacific 
break  in  fantastic  sea-ghosts  against  the  rocky 
cliffs. 


WHERE  PROWLING  IS  GOOD    19 

Navigation  of  these  waters  is  not  a  science, 
it  is  an  art.  The  captains  of  these  coast  craft 
know  every  tree  and  rock  and  river  mouth  for 
four  hundred  miles,  and  make  their  way  through 
tortuous  channels  by  markings  that  no  landsman 
can  see.  There  is  one  grizzled  navigator,  said  to 
be  unable  to  read  or  write,  who  knows  every 
marking  on  the  coast  for  six  hundred  miles,  and 


AN    EMPIRE    IN    THE    MAKING 


in  the  long  years  of  service  has  never  made  a  mis- 
take or  met  with  an  accident.  Possibly  his  suc- 
cess might  be  due  to  the  fact  that  what  he  does  not 
know  does  not  confuse  him.  His  mental  horizon 
may  not  be  very  distant,  but  at  least  he  escapes 
a  lot  of  worry  about  things  that  he  (and  you  and 
I)  cannot  control.  When  the  tides  have  a  rise 
and  fall  of  eighteen  feet,  and  all  harbors  are  but 
shallow  river  mouths,  the  negotiation  of  the  coast 


20    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

ports  becomes  a  matter  requiring  much  accuracy 
of  judgment. 

The  old  trail  across  the  Isthmus  is  the  Mecca 
of  many  pilgrims  who  by  some  searching  find  its 
scattered  stones  amid  the  riotous  jungle.  The 
later  trail  was  opened  after  the  city  of  Panama 
was  moved  to  its  present  site.  It  began  at  Colon, 
followed  the  Chagres  River  to  the  present  site  of 
Gamboa,  and  then  wound  its  ways  over  the  low 
summit  of  the  hills  down  to  the  new  Panama  and 
terminated  at  the  "Nun's  Beach,"  where  now 
stand  a  Protestant  church  and  school.  Here  the 
pack  trains  were  unloaded  and  the  high  tides  car- 
ried the  rafts  and  lighters  out  to  the  ships  waiting 
in  the  little  harbor. 

The  dark  days  of  Panama  were  the  days  after 
the  gold  trade  failed.  Even  the  gold  of  Peru  was 
not  inexhaustible,  and  the  trade  across  the 
Isthmus  could  not  stand  continued  centuries  of 
robbery  and  murder.  It  had  to  end  some  time, 
and  end  it  did;  and  when  the  end  came  all  the 
Isthmus  lapsed  into  a  slough  of  despond  and  leth- 
argy of  inertia.  For  a  century  and  a  half 
Panama  was  as  forgotten  as  the  Catacombs. 

But  Panama  went  her  way,  whether  anybody 
cared  or  not.  The  people  left  on  the  Isthmus 
were  the  racial  remnants  of  the  mixture  of  man- 
kind that  had  found  its  way  back  and  forth  for 
two  centuries,  and  they  were  fairly  able  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  The  rich  forests  and  fertile 


WHERE  PROWLING  IS  GOOD    21 

soil  would  bear  fruit  and  food  enough  to  sustain 
life  whether  anyone  worked  or  not,  and  the  result 
was  not  the  development  of  a  virile  race  of  men. 
How  could  it  be?  Probably  few  spots  on  earth 
have  had  less  incentive  to  develop  hardy  and  en- 
terprising character  than  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
The  prowler  about  Panama  will  find  a  wide 


A  FEW  GOOD  ROADS  ON  THE  ZONE 

variety  of  interests  and  inspirations.  Whatever 
his  peculiar,  personal  fad  he  can  find  it  some- 
where. Then  he  can  prowl  to  his  heart's  content. 
If  he  prefers  the  sea,  there  are  fifteen  hundred 
miles  of  coast  line  to  explore  with  something  new 
to  every  mile.  Or  he  can  launch  out  a  bit,  an$  in 
a  day's  time  make  his  way  to  the  famous  Pearl 
Islands,  where  are  life  and  industry  so  distinct 
that  weeks  mays  be  spent  in  studying  the  develop- 


22     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

ment  of  a  civilization,  insular  and  unique.  The 
coast  of  Darien  has  boundless  possibilities  for  the 
explorer;  and  the  San  Bias  Islands  would  keep 
the  ethnologist  busy  for  months.  For  an  en- 
chanted inland  sea  the  Chiriqui  Lagoon  is  unsur- 
passed. 

If  historical  romance  is  desired,  the  prowling 
is  certainly  abundant;  and  if  the  prowler  is  a 
lover  of  nature,  wild  and  luxuriant,  rioting  in 
marvelous  and  indescribable  forms  of  overflowing 
life,  he  has  but  to  equip  himself  for  jungle  travel, 
and  he  will  find  wonders  by  the  mile,  and  fan- 
tastic nature  piled  mountains  high  and  chasms 
deep.  If  it  is  mountains,  they  are  here  in  scenic 
beauty  unsurpassed.  If  the  explorer  is  a  student 
of  human  nature  and  cares  to  attempt  the  un- 
scrambling of  this  blend  of  blood  that  flows  in 
swarthy  faces,  he  will  be  busy  here  for  a  lifetime. 
And  if  none  of  these  will  do,  and  the  curious 
landsman  will  have  nothing  short  of  the  exploring 
of  vast  unchristened  wildernesses  where  no  hu- 
man foot  has  ever  trod,  and  where  strange  and 
dangerous  forms  of  unclassified  life  wander  at 
will  through  the  overgrown  forests,  he  will  find 
it — and  doubtless  he  will  find  much  more  of  it 
than  he  wants  before  he  gets  back  to  civiliza- 
tion. 

If  it  is  promotion  schemes  and  development 
projects,  then  here  at  least  is  a  commodious  place 
to  put  them.  Here,  in  agricultural  and  coloniz- 


WHERE  PROWLING  IS  GOOD    23 

ing  schemes,  somebody  will  yet  get  rich — and 
other  somebodies  poor. 

If  the  prowler's  interest  is  primarily  social,  and 
he  would  browse  about  one  of  the  most  interesting 
cities  in  America,  let  him  come  to  Panama. 
Ancient  Spanish  streets,  scrupulously  clean — 
can  these  be  found  anywhere  else?  Side  by  side, 
over  and  under,  the  sixteenth  and  twentieth  cen- 
turies run  together. 

And  what  makes  Panama  to-day  the  crossroad 
of  the  world?  For  him  who  in  the  love  of  engi- 
neering skill  holds  communion  with  high  human 
achievement,  and  prefers  to  prowl  around  the 
locks  and  docks,  and  study  the  marvelous  suc- 
cesses and  adaptations  and  devices  of  the  latest 
and  greatest  feat  of  brain  and  hand,  this  is  the 
very  center  of  the  earth.  No  man  with  a  soul  for 
the  poetry  of  mechanics  can  stand  in  a  control 
house  of  one  of  the  locks  and  see  the  enormous 
gates  swing  back  at  the  movement  of  a  finger 
without  feeling  that  man,  with  all  his  limitations, 
has  yet  in  his  being  some  image  of  the  Creator. 
To  see  an  ocean  giant  rise  up  slowly  in  the  teeth 
of  gravitation  and  slip  through  the  gates  on  to  the 
higher  level,  is  to  wonder  whether  the  portals  that 
look  so  gloomy  to  us  may  not,  after  all,  be  not 
exits  but  entrances  to  a  new  and  higher  level  of 
life.  What  a  text!  The  ship  does  not  rise  by 
straining  but  by  resting  in  a  narrow  place.  And 
no  ship  ever  yet  got  through  the  locks  without  a 


24     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

pilot.  The  whole  process  is  as  silent  as  the  forces 
of  eternity.  There  is  a  lot  more,  and  it  bears  no 
copyright.  Help  yourself. 

And  for  the  prowler  in  the  region  of  philos- 
ophy, what  a  place !  What  changes  in  the  geog- 
raphy and  commerce  and  industry  and  policies 
and  politics  of  mankind  must  follow  this  last 


CHURCH    AT    NATA,    OLDEST   INHABITED   TOWN   IN   THE    NEW 
WORLD,    FOUNDED    1520 

achievement  on  the  historical  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
"quien  sabe?"  ("who  knows?")  None  but  the 
Omniscient.  Trade  routes  and  bank  exchanges, 
commercial  dealings  and  national  programs  will 
all  be  affected  by  this  three-hundred-foot  wide 
highway  of  water.  If  but  some  power  the  gift 
would  give  us  to  come  back  a  century  hence  and 
see  what  will  be  doing  then ! 

What  social  and  moral  transformations  will  be 


WHERE  PROWLING  IS  GOOD    25 

wrought  in  the  coming  years  by  the  release  of 
spiritual  forces  through  the  new  religious  life  and 
free  faith  brought  to  Panama  with  the  coming  of 
the  Canal?  Out  of  the  soul-bondage  of  a  sys- 
tem of  superstition  and  ignorance  will  come  a  new 
human  consciousness  of  the  worthiness  of  life  and 
the  high  privilege  of  living.  Whether  it  is  to 
prowl  or  prophesy,  the  material  is  abundant,  and 
the  pilgrim  will  find  rare  material  a-plenty  all 
about  him.  Panama  is  perplexing  and  peculiar, 
but  he  who  finds  the  key  to  the  riddle  will  be  kept 
busy. 

Perhaps  the  amateur  explorer  has  a  pen- 
chant for  old  churches.  Here  they  are.  Seven 
of  them,  with  a  couple  of  first-class  ruins  thrown 
in.  The  rich  monasteries  of  Peru  and  Mexico  are 
missing,  but  for  that  there  is  a  reason.  Every 
bit  of  treasure  was  stolen  as  fast  as  accumulated. 
Yes,  if  unmolested  in  the  past,  Panama  would  be 
a  mine  for  the  antiquarian  to-day.  But  any  ac- 
tive imagination,  even  on  half-time  shift,  can  find 
here  material  for  romances,  warranted  to  interest 
every  member  of  the  family,  at  reduced  prices,  if 
paid  for  in  advance.  From  the  Flat-Arch 
Church  to  the  ruins  of  Old  Panama  it  is  good 
prowling  all  the  way. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES 

THE  present  conglomerate  of  humanity  living 
on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  is  the  racial  remainder 
of  some  very  much  mixed  social  history.  Here 
were  enacted  some  of  the  most  stirring  stories  and 
tempestuous  times  in  American  history.  In  1453 
the  Eastern  Roman  Empire  fell  before  the  as- 
saults of  the  Turks  and  closed  the  land  routes  to 
India.  Nearly  forty  years  later  Columbus  set 
sail  in  his  great  effort  to  find  a  westward  pas- 
sage for  the  commerce  of  Europe.  In  this  he 
failed,  but  on  his  fourth  and  final  voyage  discov- 
ered the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  landed  on  the 
shores  of  the  Chiriqui  Lagoon,  supposing  that 
the  beautiful  inland  sea  must  be  the  long-sought 
passage  westward.  Here  the  town  of  Almirante 
still  bears  his  name.  At  Porto  Bello  and  Saint 
Christopher  Bay  he  made  brief  stops  and  re- 
turned to  Spain  having  no  idea  of  the  character 
of  the  isthmus  that  he  had  discovered. 

On  November  3,  1903,  exactly  four  hundred 
years  from  the  day  that  Columbus  set  foot  on  the 
soil  of  Panama,  the  Republic  of  Panama  declared 
its  sovereign  independence  and  began  its  national 
life  as  one  of  the  family  of  American  nations. 

26 


TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES         27 


In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  the 
Caribbean  main  was  overrun  by  as  unscrupulous 
and  bloodthirsty  a  set  of  pirates  as  ever  sailed 
any  sea.    Even  with- 
out     these      rascals 
there     would     have 
been  trouble  enough, 
and   with   them   the 
story    is    sufficiently 
lurid    for    the    most 
melodramatic  taste. 

One  name  stands 
out  above  his  fellows. 
The  intrepid  navi- 
gator who  first  saw 
the  waters  of  the 
Pacific  set  forth  at 
the  age  of  twenty- 
three  as  an  adven- 
turer, and  after  vari- 
ous experiences  em- 
barked as  a  stowa- 
way for  his  second 
voyage.  By  per- 
sonal persuasion  he 
became  the  partner 

of  his  master,  and  after  founding  a  colony  in 
Darien  sent  Senor  Endico  back  to  Spain  in  irons 
for  his  pains. 

This   left  Balboa   supreme,   with  the   whole 


THE   JUNGLE    IS    THE   PLACE   FOB 
PICNICS 


28     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Castilla  de  Oro  (Castle  of  Gold)  country  before 
him  for  exploration.  He  at  once  sent  Pizarro  to 
examine  the  interior  and  gathered  the  scattered 
fugitives  from  former  expeditions.  The  com- 
bined forces  took  the  field  against  the  Indians. 
When  they  reached  the  domain  of  Comagre,  the 
most  powerful  chief  of  the  country,  peace  was 
made.  This  chief  was  a  real  aristocrat  with  mum- 
mied ancestors  clothed  in  gold  and  pearls,  and  he 
gave  to  Balboa  four  thousand  ounces  of  gold, 
sixty  wives,  and  offered  to  show  him  the  way  to 
a  country  beyond  the  dim  mountains  where  a 
powerful  people  lived  in  magnificence  and  sailed 
ships  of  solid  gold.  He  also  entertained  his  dis- 
tinguished visitor  with  tales  of  a  temple  of  gold 
called  Dabaibe,  forty  leagues  farther  than 
Darien,  and  said  that  the  mother  of  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  lived  there. 

Balboa's  imagination  was  stirred  by  these 
stories  and  he  prepared  an  expedition  of  discov- 
ery. No  temple  of  gold  was  found,  but  internal 
dissensions  and  Indian  attacks  disturbed  the 
peace  of  the  colony.  Reenforcements  arrived, 
and  with  them  the  title  of  captain-general. 

Balboa  now  set  out  on  what  was  to  be  the  most 
famous  event  of  his  life.  He  had  been  promised 
the  sight  of  a  great  ocean  to  the  south,  after  he 
had  climbed  certain  mountains.  Various  Indian 
oppositions  developed,  but  on  the  26th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1513,  at  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning, 


TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES         29 

Balboa  and  his  men,  from  the  top  of  a  high  moun- 
tain, saw  for  the  first  time  the  waters  of  the  vast 
Pacific.  The  priest  of  the  expedition,  named 
Andreas  de  Vara,  chanted  a  Te  Deum,  with  the 
entire  company  on  their  knees.  A  cross  was 
raised,  and  the  names  of  the  Spanish  rulers 
carved  on  the  surrounding  trees. 

After  meeting  several  Indian  tribes  the  de- 
scent was  made  to  the  shore,  and  Balboa  waded 
knee  deep  into  the  surf  and,  waving  the  banner 
of  Spain,  proclaimed  that  the  new-found  ocean 
and  all  land  bordering  thereon  should  be  the 
property  of  his  sovereign. 

For  a  long  time  this  new  ocean  was  known  as 
the  South  Sea,  and  Balboa  at  once  set  about  ex- 
ploring the  vicinity.  The  Pearl  Islands  were  lo- 
cated, taken  possession  of,  and  named.  A  later 
expedition  by  a  less  difficult  route  crossed  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  and  conquered  the  Indians 
on  the  Pearl  Islands,  bringing  back  plentiful 
tribute  of  fine  pearls  from  the  subdued  chief. 

The  year  following,  in  1514,  arrived  the  black 
villain  of  the  story  in  the  person  of  Pedrarias, 
sent  out  from  Spain  as  governor  of  Darien.  This 
disturber  brought  with  him  two  thousand  men. 
Balboa  built  a  fleet  of  ships  on  the  Atlantic  side, 
took  them  to  pieces,  carried  them  on  the  backs  of 
Indians  across  the  Isthmus,  put  them  together 
again,  launched  them  in  the  waters  of  the  Pacific, 
and  proceeded  to  explore  the  coast  eastward  from 


30    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Panama.  On  his  return  from  this  trip  Balboa 
was  arrested  by  Pedrarias  on  a  trumped-up 
charge  of  treason,  and  in  the  forty-second  year  of 
his  life  was  beheaded,  while  declaring  his  entire 
innocency  of  all  treachery.  Balboa  was  a  prod- 
uct of  his  age,  and  of  faults  he  possessed 
a-plenty,  but  as  one  of  the  great  explorers  of  his- 
tory his  end  was  a  sad  reward  for  the  distin- 
guished services  that  he  rendered  to  the  world. 
In  1515  an  expedition  crossed  the  Isthmus  and 


EVEN    FARM    CABINS    ARE    PICTURESQUE    IN    COSTA    RICA 

camped  near  the  hut  of  a  poor  fisherman  at  a 
point  called  by  the  natives  Panama.  For  this 
name  several  explanations  are  given,  one  of  them 
being  that  there  were  many  shellfish  at  this  place. 
The  meaning  of  the  name  is  now  lost,  but  in  1519 
the  city  of  Panama  was  founded  at  this  point  by 
Pedrarias.  Two  years  later,  by  order  of  the 
Spanish  crown,  the  bishopric,  government,  and 
colonists  of  the  Isthmus  were  transferred  from 
the  Atlantic  side  at  Darien  to  Old  Panama. 


TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES         31 

History  now  began  in  earnest  by  the  Pacific. 
In  1525  a  priest  celebrated  in  the  cathedral  at  Old 
Panama  solemn  mass  with  two  other  men, 
Pizzarro  and  Almagro,  the  rite  being  a  solemn 
vow  to  conquer  all  countries  lying  to  the  south. 
For  this  purpose  an  expedition  was  soon  organ- 
ized and  sailed  away  along  the  west  coast  of 
South  America.  This  expedition  met  with  vary- 
ing fortunes,  but  in  time  discovered  the  long- 
sought  Peru  with  its  splendid  temples  and  golden 
treasures. 

The  first  regular  trail  across  the  Isthmus  led 
from  N  ombre  de  Dios  to  Old  Panama,  crossing 
the  Chagres  River  at  Cruces.  Later  small  boats 
sailed  from  Nombre  de  Dios  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Chagres  and  made  their  way  up  to  Cruces,  where 
their  cargoes  were  transferred  to  the  backs  of 
horses  for  the  rest  of  the  journey  to  Panama. 
Later  Nombre  de  Dios  was  abandoned  for  Porto 
Bello,  because  of  the  very  good  harbor  at  the 
latter  place.  The  old  trail  was  "paved"  with 
stones  for  a  part  of  the  way,  and  the  relics  of  this 
old  road  may  still  be  found  in  a  few  places  amid 
the  tangled  growths  of  the  jungle. 

With  the  conquest  of  Peru  and  the  discov- 
ery of  gold  in  Darien,  Old  Panama  came  rapidly 
to  its  own  and  soon  became  a  city  of  great  im- 
portance, being  for  the  time  the  richest  city  in 
New  Spain.  All  the  gold  of  Peru  and  the  rich 
west  coast  was  brought  to  Panama  to  be  sorted 


32     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

and  packed  across  the  Isthmus,  thence  to  be  sent 
to  Spain.  Porto  Bello  became  a  rich  town  and 
maintained  great  annual  fairs  up  to  the  time  of 
its  destruction  by  Morgan's  pirates. 

The  century  and  a  half  between  the  establish- 
ment of  Old  Panama  as  the  chief  city  of  the 
Isthmus  and  its  destruction  in  1671  supplied  one 
of  the  tempestuous  periods  of  history.  It  was  on 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama  that  the  American  slave 
trade  began  and  was  continued  for  three  hundred 
years.  The  native  Indians  were  so  destroyed  by 
the  brutality  and  greed  of  the  Spanish  conquerors 
that  the  expedient  of  importing  black  men  from 
Africa  was  devised  in  order  to  secure  a  labor  sup- 
ply for  the  country.  Here  arises  the  historical 
precedent  for  the  use  of  West  Indian  labor  in  the 
digging  of  the  American  Canal. 

The  best  account  of  the  sacking  and  destruc- 
tion of  Old  Panama  is  that  written  by  John  Es- 
quemeling  and  published  seven  years  after  the 
event,  of  which  he  was  an  eyewitness,  being  a 
member  of  the  pirates'  band.  The  detailed  ac- 
count of  this  event,  with  the  general  pillaging  of 
the  Isthmus  by  the  English  buccaneers,  has  been 
narrated  with  much  exactness  and  great  interest. 

Stories  of  the  great  wealth  of  Old  Panama  in 
the  day  of  its  glory  are  not  hard  to  find.  With 
the  complete  destruction  of  all  this  magnificence, 
the  present  city  was  founded  with  due  ceremonies 
in  1673  and  much  stone  was  transported  from  the 


TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES 


33 


old  city  and  built  into  the  new.  The  cathedral 
was  soon  built  and  stands  to-day  as  solid  as  when 
first  erected.  The  queen  of  Spain  sent  detailed 
instructions  for  the  building  of  the  city,  and 
among  other  things  directed  that  a  safe  wall,  for 
defense  should  be  provided.  This  was  so  well 
done  that  some  of  it  still  stands,  an  interesting 
relic  of  the  vigor  and  thoroughness  of  the  civil- 
ization that  produced  it.  Many  years  passed  in 
building  these  walls,  and  they  were  said  to  have 
cost  ten  millions  of  dollars,  most  of  which  came 
from  Peru.  The  story  is  told  of  a 
Spanish  king,  who  stood  one  day 
looking  out  of  his  palace  window. 
When  asked  what  he  was  looking 
for  he  replied,  "I 
am  looking  for 


RUINS   OP   OLD   PANAMA.    THE   MOST    ROMANTIC   SPOT   IN 
THE   NEW    WORLD 


34     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

those  costly  walls  of  Panama;  they  should  be  vis- 
ible even  from  here."  A  little  knowledge  of  the 
business  methods  of  those  days  may  throw  some 
light  on  the  whys  and  wherefores  of  the  high  cost 
of  the  old  walls. 

Twenty-six  years  after  the  founding  of  the 
present  city  of  Panama  an  effort  was  made  to 
establish  an  English  colony  in  Darien,  but  fever 
and  discouragement  aided  the  Spanish  in  ending 
the  venture. 

The  eighteenth  century  is  a  monotonous  one  in 
Panama  annals,  marked  mainly  by  frequent  en- 
counters between  the  Spaniards  and  the  Indians. 
Several  piratical  expeditions  ended  in  the  scatter- 
ing and  murdering  of  the  pirates  and  restoration 
of  Spanish  sovereignty. 

When  the  great  movement  in  South  America 
for  political  independence  swept  as  far  north  as 
Colombia,  and  the  decisive  battle  of  Boyaca  was 
fought  in  1819,  Panama  was  very  strongly  held 
by  Spain  as  a  place  of  maintenance  for  her 
armies,  and  the  city  was  at  all  times  in  a  good 
state  of  defense.  In  this  same  year,  however,  the 
first  junta  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  bring- 
ing about  independence  from  Spain,  and  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  the  revolution  grew  very  rapidly. 
Early  in  1821  General  Murgeon  arrived  with 
the  promise  of  high  reward  if  he  could  compose 
the  difficulties  in  Panama  and  save  the  Isthmus  to 
Spain.  This  he  saw  to  be  impossible,  and  after 


TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES         35 

having  appointed  Jose  de  Fabrega  as  coloner, 
he  left  for  Quito.  Fabrega,  being  Isthmian  born, 
cast  his  lot  with  the  revolutionists  and  on  Novem- 
ber 28th,  1821,  a  large  and  enthusiastic  crowd 
assembled  with  representatives  from  all  military 
and  ecclesiastical  organizations,  and  Panama  was 
declared  to  be  forever  free  from  Spanish  domin- 
ion. A  few  loyal  troops,  seeing  their  helpless 
position,  laid  down  their  arms,  and  the  change  of 
government  was  effected  without  the  shedding  of 
a  drop  of  blood — something  new  in  Panamanian 
affairs.  Simon  Bolivar  sent  over  help  for  the 
independents,  but  found  the  work  done  before  his 
men  arrived. 

After  this  political  upheaval  Panama  slept  on, 
and  would  still  be  dormant  to-day  but  for  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  in  California  in  1849.  With  a 
six  months'  overland  journey  between  the  gold- 
hungry  men  of  the  Eastern  States  and  the  gold- 
filled  mountains  of  the  West,  the  Isthmus  sud- 
denly came  into  prominence  as  an  easier  way  of 
reaching  California.  For  seven  or  eight  years 
after  the  finding  of  gold  not  less  than  forty  mil- 
lions of  dollars  of  gold,  twelve  millions  in  silver, 
and  twenty-five  thousand  passengers  were  trans- 
ported across  the  Isthmus  annually.  In  1853  the 
high-water  mark  was  reached,  when  sixty-six  mil- 
lions of  dollars  of  gold  were  carried  across  to  the 
Atlantic  side  and  shipped  to  New  York. 

This  sudden  development  of  the  pack  train 


36     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


business  brought  to  the  Isthmus  a  horde  of  Chil- 
eans, Peruvians, 
Indians,  and 
mixed  breeds,  a- 
mong  whom  were 
the  inevitable 
plunderers  and 
spoilers.  The  trail 
was  again  marked 
by  blood  and 
treachery.  Many 
an  unhappy  pil- 
grim lost  his 
riches,  and  not  a 
few  lost  their  lives 
on  the  way.  At 
last  the  authorities 
were  aroused  to 
the  necessity  of 
making  safe  this 
highway  suddenly 
become  so  impor- 
tant to  the  world. 

The  year  of  the 
first  gold  rush  saw 

INDIAN    WOMAN    AT    THE    FOUNTAIN  the  Organization  Of 

the  Panama  Rail- 
road Company.  In  1846  three  American  busi- 
ness men  organized  under  the  present  name  and 
secured  a  concession  from  New  Granada  for 


TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES         37 

forty-nine  years  with  such  conditions  that  no  ship 
canal  could  be  constructed  across  the  Isthmus 
without  the  consent  of  the  railroad  company. 
When  the  name  of  New  Granada  was  changed  to 
that  of  Colombia,  the  time  was  extended  to 
ninety-nine  years.  This  concession  in  time  came 
to  be  very  valuable,  and  the  French  Canal  Com- 
pany found  it  necessary  to  buy  out  the  Panama 
Railroad  in  order  to  secure  control  of  the  exclu- 
sive right  of  way  across  the  Isthmus.  Later, 
when  the  United  States  acquired  the  control  of 
the  French  possessions  in  Panama,  the  Panama 
Railroad  became  one  of  the  most  valuable  assets 
on  the  list.  By  conditions  of  the  concession,  this 
road  was  bound  to  pay  to  Colombia  the  sum  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  year. 
After  various  transfers  and  deals  this  still  holds 
in  the  form  of  the  obligation  of  the  Panama 
Canal  to  pay  this  sum  annually  to  the  Republic 
of  Panama. 

The  story  of  the  early  construction  days  of  the 
Panama  Railroad  are  as  exciting  as  those  of  the 
Morgan  Pirates,  with  a  far  better  outcome. 
Labor  troubles  were  many  and  bitter,  and  it  be- 
came necessary  to  hold  men  in  jail  until  they  were 
willing  to  work.  The  attractions  of  the  Cali- 
fornia gold  fields  were  too  much  for  the  cupidity 
of  men  who  saw  daily  pack  trains  loaded  with 
gold  from  the  Eldorado  of  the  Northwest  pass- 
ing their  wretched  hovels  and  taunting  them  with 


38    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

visions  of  easy  riches.  But  the  work  proceeded, 
and  after  interminable  troubles  with  the  black 
swamp  between  Aspinwall  (Colon)  and  Gatun, 
the  road  was  finished  as  far  as  Gatun  in  the  year 
1850.  In  1855  the  line  was  finished  to  Panama 
and  the  romantic  career  of  the  most  prosperous 
short  railroad  in  the  world  was  well  under  way. 

Charges  for  freight  and  passenger  travel  were 
enormous  in  the  early  days  of  the  road.  The  fare 
was  fifty  cents  per  mile,  with  all  baggage  extra. 
Freight  was  carried  across  the  Isthmus  for 
twenty-five  cents  per  pound,  but  so  terrible  were 
the  old  pack-train  conditions  that  the  travelers  of 
that  day  were  more  than  willing  to  pay  such 
prices  for  the  luxury  of  crossing  the  Isthmus  by 
the  railroad. 

At  last  the  Colombian  government  took  up  the 
matter  and  the  passenger  rate  was  reduced.  Ten 
cents  per  pound  continued  to  be  the  freight 
charge  for  years.  The  road  made  vast  profits, 
and  by  a  combination  of  rates  with  the  steamship 
companies  maintained  a  monopoly  of  travel.  A 
few  years  after  the  completion  of  the  railroad  the 
pack-train  men  and  outlaws,  deprived  of  their, 
plunder  by  the  road,  became  very  active  as  brig- 
ands, and  on  one  occasion  perpetrated  a  riot  that 
cost  sixteen  Americans  their  lives  and  brought 
the  United  States  and  Colombia  to  the  verge  of 
open  rupture. 

As  far  back  as  1515  a  German  named  Schoner 


TRAIL  OF  THE  PIRATES         39 

drew  a  map  of  the  American  continents  with  a 
clear  line  for  a  canal  through  the  Isthmus.  In 
1581  an  actual  survey  was  made  for  a  canal,  but 
nothing  was  done  about  it.  In  1620  Diego  de 
Mercado  submitted  a  long  report  to  Philip  II, 
but  the  monarch  turned  it  down,  saying  that  since 
God  had  joined  the  continents  together,  it  would 
be  impious  to  try  to  separate  them,  and  a  death 
penalty  was  decreed  for  anyone  so  rash  as  to  try 
to  undo  the  works  of  God  in  this  way.  In  1827 
an  engineer  was  sent  by  Simon  Bolivar,  president 
of  the  New  Granada  federation,  and  a  report  was 
made  commending  the  project  of  a  combined  rail 
and  water  route.  In  1838  a  French  company 
aroused  so  much  enthusiasm  in  the  canal  project 
that  an  expert  was  sent  by  the  French  govern- 
ment to  look  the  ground  over.  He  reported  that 
a  sea-level  canal  could  be  dug  without  going 
deeper  than  thirty-seven  feet,  but  the  idea  was 
again  abandoned.  Two  American  investigations 
were  made  in  1866  and  1875,  and  about  this  time 
much  interest  was  aroused  in  the  then  new  Nic- 
aragua project. 

The  popularity  of  the  Suez  Canal,  successfully 
completed  in  1869,  led  directly  to  the  DeLesseps 
organization  of  the  Panama  Canal  Company. 
Agitation  began  in  1875  and  in  the  year  follow- 
ing a  right  of  way  was  secured,  but  with  the 
Panama  Railroad  concession  standing  in  the  way. 

The  story  of  the  work  of  the  French  Company, 


40     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

the  New  Canal  Company,  and  the  final  comple- 
tion of  the  work  by  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, is  told  elsewhere. 

Now  that  the  trail  of  the  sixteenth-century 
pirates  has  become  the  most  famous  inland  water- 
way of  the  world,  we  can  read  with  complacency 
the  story  of  the  wretched  times  during  which  the 
Isthmus  was  the  scene  of  constant  strife.  Verily, 
Panama  was  not  a  very  good  place  for  sightsee- 
ing in  those  days.  The  prowlers  of  the  infested 
jungles  and  blood-stained  trails  were  not  such  as 
we  would  select  as  traveling  companions  to-day. 
If  any  modern  prowler  becomes  despondent  and 
is  tempted  to  complain  that  the  former  days  were 
better  than  these,  let  him  read  the  story  of  Old 
Panama,  and  then  consider  conditions  as  they  are 
on  the  Isthmus  and  the  Zone  to-day,  and  he  will 
find  food  for  reflection. 


CHAPTER  III 
PICTURESQUE  PANAMA 

A  PANAMANIAN  cart  loaded  with  English  tea 
biscuit,  drawn  by  an  old  American  army  mule, 
driven  by  a  Hindoo  wearing  a  turban,  drove  up 
in  front  of  a  Chinese  shop.  The  Jamaican  clerk, 
aided  by  the  San  Bias  errand  boy,  came  out  to 
supervise  the  unloading.  The  mule  wriggled 
about  out  of  position,  a  Spanish  policeman  came 
along  and  everybody  got  out  and  "cussed"  the 
mule. 

That  is  Panama,  every  day.  Across  the  street 
is  an  Italian  lace  shop  run  by  a  Jew.  Next  door 
is  a  printery,  operated  by  a  Costa  Rican.  Just 
beyond  is  a  French  laundry  conducted  by  a  man 
from  Switzerland,  and  on  the  next  corner  is  a 
beautiful  Chinese  store  where  they  sell  everything 
from  Japan.  Cloisonne  and  lacquer  and  curious 
carvings,  silks,  embroideries,  scientific  instru- 
ments— they  are  all  here.  You  can  buy  Canton 
linen,  Hongkong  brass,  Nikko  carvings,  Hindoo 
embroidery,  German  cutlery,  French  micro- 
scopes, Canadian  flour,  New  York  apples,  and 
California  grapes  all  within  a  block.  And  the 
products  of  Central  and  South  America  are  all 
about. 

41 


42     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

The  street  in  front  of  the  shops  is  full  of  Pan- 
amanians, Peruvians,  Ecuadorians,  Chileans, 
Colombians,  and  San  Bias  Indians,  besides  some 
representatives  of  every  country  of  North  and 
South  America,  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa. 
Canal  Zone  Americans  walk  past  Yankee  busi- 
ness men,  and  native  police  crowd  the  mestizos 
off  the  sidewalk. 

Panama  is  a  jitney  town,  and  the  honk  of  the 
never-silent  horn  punctuates  the  clang  and  dash 
of  the  trolleys  and  automobiles  down  a  fifteen- 
foot  street  in  a  mad  race  to  see  which  can  get 
through  first.  Overhanging  roofs  nearly  touch 
above  blooming  orchids  and  talking  birds  that 
scream  across  the  narrow  streets.  Gloomy  in- 
teriors and  stumbling  stairways  lead  up  to  spa- 
cious apartments  and  breezy  balconies.  Above 
are  occasional  roof -gar  dens.  All  the  rooms  have 
high  ceilings,  all  the  streets  are  paved,  and  all  the 
kids  wear  clothes — sometimes. 

There  is  no  possible  human  shade  or  tint  that 
is  absent  here.  The  Anglo-Saxons  are  white, 
more  or  less.  The  Jamaicans  are  black,  mostly. 
The  Panamanian  is  most  often  a  soft  and  pleasing 
brown,  done  in  a  number  of  wholly  unmatchable 
tints.  And  the  natives  from  these  many  sunny 
countries  round  about  are  of  every  known  color- 
tone,  from  chrome  yellow  to  Paris  green.  This 
is  the  human  kaleidoscope  of  the  earth:  shake  it 
up  and  you  will  get  a  different  result  every  time. 


PICTURESQUE  PANAMA          43 

You  may  not  like  it,  but  you  can  never  truth- 
fully say  that  Panama  is  not  interesting — all  the 
time. 

The  streets  are  clean.  Daily  sweepers  and 
nightly  garbage  men  take  care  of  that.  The  side- 
walks are  narrow,  of  course.  Perhaps  these  two- 
foot  sidewalks  account  in  part  for  the  innate 
courtesy  of  the  Latin 
mind.  One  must  be 
either  polite  or  profane 
when  he  makes  his 
way  along  these  little 
ledges,  often  two  or 
three  feet  above  the 
street.  A  portable 
stepladder  would  help 
some. 

Some  of  these  houses 
are  old,  very  old.  A 
few  are  new;  most  of 

them    have    Stood    here    BATHS— WHOLESALE  AND  RETAIL 

one    or    two    hundred 

years.  There  are  many  three  stories  high,  a  few 
boast  of  four  stories,  but  the  most  of  them  have 
but  two.  Third  stories  are  popular  because  of  the 
breezes  that  blow  and  make  life  comfortable. 

Plazas  are  small,  but  parked  and  well  kept, 
and  they  are  used  as  only  Latin- Americans  know 
how  to  use  a  plaza.  The  little  ones  are  garden- 
spot  oases  in  the  deserts  of  bare  walls  and  wide 


44     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

eaves.  Santa  Ana  Plaza  is  the  heart  of  the  city, 
and  there  is  no  hour  of  the  day  or  night  that  there 
are  not  people  there.  If  you  really  wish  to  see 
the  world  go  by,  sit  on  the  stone  bench  at  Santa 
Ana  Plaza  and  look  about  you.  If  you  stay  long 
enough,  you  may  see  anybody,  from  the  latest 
naked  brown  baby  to  the  last  chosen  president  of 
any  country  you  may  name. 

Sitting  in  the  plaza  is  a  business  by  itself  in 
this  country.  The  North  American  uses  a  park 
as  a  short  cut,  cross-corners,  to  get  somewhere. 
But  with  the  tropic  citizen,  the  plaza  is  an  end  in 
itself.  He  is  not  going  anywhere,  he  is  just  sit- 
ting in  the  plaza.  He  may  not  even  be  called  a 
bench-warmer — the  bench  is  already  warm.  He 
is  sitting  in  the  plaza — that  is  all. 

The  band-night  parade  in  Santa  Ana  Plaza  is 
an  institution.  Around  the  central  garden  they 
saunter,  to  the  swing  of  the  very  good  music  from 
the  central  pavilion.  The  outer  walk  is  wide,  and 
so  is  the  parade.  Clockwise  walks  the  inner  cir- 
cle, three  abreast,  all  young  men.  In  the  opposite 
direction  saunter  the  young  women,  also  in  threes. 
'Round  and  'round  they  go,  talking,  laughing, 
listening,  looking,  lingering,  while  the  band  plays 
on.  It  is  a  good  band  too.  And  not  the  least  of 
the  exhibit  is  the  clothes  the  women  wear.  In 
matter  of  graceful  and  apparently  comfortable 
costumes  the  Panamanian  girls  need  apologize  to 
none  of  their  northern  sisters.  Who  is  to  blame 


PICTURESQUE  PANAMA         45 

the  boys  if  they  keep  on  walking  around  for  the 
sake  of  seeing  the  seeable,  especially  when  she 
may  be  quite  worth  watching?  Every  added  turn 
means  one  look  more.  It  is  all  very  dignified 
and  proper,  but  human  nature  is  the  same  old 
composition  in  every  land,  and  the  blood  in  the 
heart  runs  red,  no  matter  what  the  tint  or  tan 
without.  In  a  land  where  the  customs  of  chap- 
eronage  are  exceeding  strict,  and  no  young  wom- 
an is  supposed  to  be  left  alone  with  any  young 
man  for  the  briefest  moment,  it  is  easy  to  see  why 
the  band  nights  in  the  plaza  are  popular.  Os- 
tensibly the  young  women,  after  the  manner  of 
their  kind,  have  no  interest  in  the  young  men, 
but  just  the  same,  their  soft  brown  eyes  have  the 
same  old  way  of  wandering  at  the  right  moment ; 
it  is  the  same  old  trick  and  it  works  in  the  same 
old  way. 

The  cathedral  plaza  is  rather  a  different 
matter.  Here  gather  the  elite,  in  numbers  on 
concert  nights,  and  more  or  less  on  other  fair 
evenings.  The  grown-ups  sit  about  on  the 
benches  and  the  children  run  and  play,  care-free 
and  comfortable.  Well-dressed  and  content, 
these  are  the  best  of  the  old  native  stock  that  used 
to  live  "inside"  the  walls  of  Panama  that  the 
Spanish  king  thought  he  should  be  able  to  see. 
There  are  usually  a  few  Americans  with  the 
crowd,  and  it  is  a  peaceful  and  restful  family 
scene.  Were  it  not  for  the  incessant  clatter  of 


46     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


r 


the  trolleys  and  jitneys  the  place  would  be  a  good 
rest-cure.    But  as  matters  now  stand, 
there  is  too  much  pandemonium  for 
any  permanent  peace. 
\         Out  at  the  point  of  the  seawall, 
\  near  Chiriqui  Prison,  stands  an  old 
stone  sentry  box.    It  ap- 
pears   to    belong   to    the 
prison  now,  but  there  was 
a  time  when  the  outlook 
from  that   point   on  the 
bay  of  Panama  was  the 
viewpoint  of  Panamanian 
life  as  it  faced  the  Pacific 
and  marked  the  place  of 
departure  for  shores  un- 
known.      It    is     prosaic 
enough  now  to  stand  be- 
side the   little  old  stone 
tower   and   watch   a  big 
liner  leave  the  canal  and 
throw    back    its    smoke- 
plume  as  it  steams  out  to 
sea,    having    left    the    Atlantic 
Ocean  seven  hours  before.    Gone 

CONVENT  DOOR  with  the  days  of  tne  explorers  and 
pirates  are  the  mystery  and  men- 
The  sentry  box  meant  something 
then.  Its  lone  occupant  scanned  anxiously  the 
horizon  for  the  sail  that  might  mean  fresh 


ace  of  it  all. 


PICTURESQUE  PANAMA         47 

plunders,  news  from  the  world  beyond,  bountiful 
booty  or  stolen  treasure,  or  perchance  a  fight  to 
the  finish  with  other  pirates  as  unscrupulous  as 
the  villains  on  shore.  Now  the  children  gather 
there  at  sunset  to  play,  care-free  on  the  high  wall 
overlooking  the  Gulf  of  Panama. 

Old  Spanish  houses  are  built  with  the  yard  in- 
side. It  is  delightfully  intimate  and  cozy,  but  not 
very  democratic.  Green  and  clean  and  cool  are 
these  little  parked  "interiors"  of  the  better 
houses.  Some  of  the  common  patios  are  dirty 
and  disheveled,  and  the  worst  of  them  are  better 
left  alone,  but  the  American  Health  Department 
looks  after  the  sanitation  of  them  all. 

Chino  (Chinese)  shops  sell  everything,  but, 
aside  from  the  fine  stores  on  Central  Avenue,  are 
mostly  devoted  to  native  trade.  Out  in  the  in- 
terior the  Chinese  storekeepers  transact  prac- 
tically all  the  business  of  the  country.  Wher- 
ever there  are  two  or  three  families  gathered  to- 
gether, there  the  Chinese  storekeeper  is  sure  to 
appear,  ready  to  harvest  any  small  or  large  coins 
that  may  be  in  circulation. 

There  were  at  one  time  about  five  hundred 
saloons  of  all  sorts  in  Panama.  This  number  has 
been  greatly  reduced  with  hope  of  complete  ex- 
tinction, owing  to  the  exigencies  of  the  near-by 
American  soldiers  on  the  Canal  Zone.  The 
monthly  payroll  of  the  Zone  is  a  stream  of  gold, 
and  it  is  a  case  of  losing  that  gold  or  cleaning  up 


48    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Panama.  Military  orders  and  voluntary  boy- 
cotts made  Panama  a  lonesome  town  for  the 
latter  part  of  1918. 

There  is  the  official  lottery,  suspiciously  lo- 
cated.    To  be  sure,  the  bishop  does  not  person- 


OFFICIAL   LOTTERY   IN   BISHOP  S    HOUSE,    PANAMA 

ally  supervise  the  drawings,  and  perhaps  he  does 
not  get  anything  out  of  it,  but  no  one  who  knows 
Panama  claims  such  to  be  the  case.  When  did 
the  hierarchy  ever  oppose  a  gambling  game  that 
promised  profit  for  the  cause?  Gaunt,  hungry- 
looking  cripples  and  pobres  hang  about  the  cor- 
ners selling  lottery  tickets.  Evidently,  none  of 
the  profits  come  to  these  unfortunates. 


PICTURESQUE  PANAMA         49 

Panama  City  has  its  neighborhoods  like  any 
other  Old- World  town.  "Inside"  the  old  wall 
includes  the  original  fortified  town  on  the  little 
peninsula  jutting  into  the  bay.  Here  live  offi- 
cials, professional  and  business  men.  Beyond 
this  lies  the  town  that  overflowed  the  wall  and 
now  reaches  down  to  the  park  in  front  of  the 
Tivoli  Hotel.  This  is  the  barrio  of  Santa  Ana. 
Caledonia  and  Guachapali  and  San  Miguel  lie 
across  the  railway  and  serve  to  fill  in  the  space 
between  the  Spanish  town  and  the  Exposition 
grounds.  A  mile  and  a  half  beyond  the  palaces 
of  the  exposition  lies  Bella  Vista,  beautiful  for 
situation  and  rivaling  Southern  California  for 
its  real  estate  enterprise.  Over  toward  the  Canal 
is  Chorilla  between  the  Cemetery  and  Ancon 
Hill.  At  the  end  of  the  five-cent  car  fare  on  the 
line  to  the  savanas  is  the  famous — or  infamous 
—bull  ring.  Who  said  that  bullfights  had  been 
abandoned?  Not  much.  Between  bullfights  and 
prize  fights  the  season  is  not  allowed  to  drag,  and 
it  must  be  admitted  that  the  number  of  American 
patrons  of  these  brutalizing  contests  is  not  to  the 
credit  of  the  kind. 

The  open  market  where  the  fishermen  come 
ashore  is  one  of  the  show  places  of  Panama. 
Pangas  and  chingas  and  craft  of  every  sort,  ex- 
cept the  modern  kind,  bring  in  on  high  tide  car- 
goes of  bananas,  coconuts,  charcoal,  camotes,  rice, 
sugar,  syrup,  rum,  papayas,  mangoes,  lonzones, 


50    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

chiotes,  poultry,  pigs,  ivory  nuts  and  a  score  of 
fruits  and  vegetables  unnamable  by  the  uniniti- 
ated. When  the  tide  recedes  the  boats  lie  high, 
if  not  very  dry,  and  the  unloading  proceeds 
apace.  It  is  an  interesting  and  lively  scene,  and 
the  bicker  and  barter  go  on  by  the  hour. 

Hard  by  is  the  big  native  market,  resort  of 
housekeepers  and  servants  in  search  of  commis- 
sary bargains.  This  one  is  fairly  clean  and  is  the 
morning  recreation  of  thousands  of  shoppers. 

Panama  has  its  theaters,  of  the  sort  to  be  ex- 
pected. One  of  the  movie  houses  compares  well 
with  the  best  anywhere,  and  most  of  the  others 
are  in  good  condition.  The  national  theater  is  a 
credit  to  the  country  and  forms  a  section  of  the 
national  palace.  On  the  Canal  Zone  the  club- 
houses, sometimes  called  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s,  put  on 
several  picture  shows  a  week  in  commendable 
effort  to  supply  recreation  to  their  patrons. 

The  architecture  of  the  old  churches  is  a  bit  dis- 
appointing to  travelers  who  have  seen  the  splen- 
did buildings  of  other  Latin  lands.  The  Cathe- 
dral has  two  modern  towers,  a  clock  in  one  of 
them,  and  the  twelve  apostles  in  life  size  on  the 
fa9ade.  The  Jesuit  Church  by  the  Malecon  is 
very  old  and  rather  interesting.  Recently  a  new 
concrete  tower  has  been  added,  of  striking  ap- 
pearance, but  not  closely  in  conformity  with  the 
architecture  of  the  church.  This  church  contains 
a  famous  old  painting  of  purgatory  and  heaven, 


PICTURESQUE  PANAMA         51 

and  down  below,  the  flames  of  the  lost.  It  is  not- 
able that  in  the  place  of  purgatory  are  bishops, 
priests,  and  kings.  There  are  ten  people  in 
heaven,  and  ten  in  purgatory,  and  of  each  ten 
three  are  women.  Query — Where  did  the  painter 
think  that  the  women  belong?  It  is  an  interest- 
ing question,  especially  for  the  women. 

The  big  Merced  Church  on  Central  Avenue 
has  a  curious  and  interesting  little  street  chapel 
on  the  corner  of  the  sidewalk,  and  here  are  ar- 
ranged curious  exhibitions  at  Christmas  and 
Easter.  I  saw  here  the  ancient  village  of  Bethle- 
hem, with  the  inn  and  manger  and  oxen ;  but  there 
were  also  a  miniature  lake  with  a  steamboat,  and 
a  grocery  wagon  delivering  goods  to  the  ancient 
Bethlehemites.  The  stores  bore  advertisements 
of  patent  breakfast  foods. 

No  place  can  be  truly  romantic  until  it  pos- 
sesses some  good  ruins,  and  Panama  claims  dis- 
tinction in  the  old  Flat -Arch  Church  near  the 
palace.  The  interior  is  now  used  as  a  garage, 
and  no  one  but  the  tourist  seems  to  think  the 
place  of  any  interest.  Two  blocks  away  stands 
the  facade  of  the  fine  old  stone  church  that  has 
been  a  ruin  now  for  years.  The  interior  is  now 
a  stable,  and  the  old  walls  of  the  college  have  been 
used  for  the  construction  of  a  modern  cheap 
tenement  house.  The  stone  front  of  the  old  wall 
stands  as  a  fine  example  of  the  architecture  and 
building  of  1751,  when  the  church  was  finished. 


52    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

The  San  Filipi  Neri  Church,  at  the  corner  of 
Avenida  B  and  Fourth  Streets,  is  made  from 
stone  carried  in  from  Old  Panama.  This  church 
is  said  to  have  the  most  beautiful  interior  in  the 
city,  but,  as  it  is  very  rarely  opened  to  the  street, 
the  visitor  will  have  to  accept  the  statement 
without  opportunity  to  judge  for  himself. 

The  savanas  lie  northeast  of  Panama  and  be- 


RUIN    OF    FAMOUS    FLAT-ARCH    CHURCH 

yond  the  ruins  of  Old  Panama.  The  rolling 
slopes  of  green  and  the  growing  number  of  villas 
will  make  this  strip  of  country  valuable  and  fa- 
mous before  long. 

Of  Panama's  hotels  not  much  need  to  be  said, 
except  that  they  are  good  of  their  kind.  Latin 
hotel  standards  are  different  from  those  of  North 
America,  but  good  judges  of  hotel  life  have  pro- 
nounced those  of  Panama  to  be  quite  endurable. 


PICTURESQUE  PANAMA 


53 


There  are  always  two  or  three  daily  papers  in 
Panama  and  an  indefinite  number  of  weeklies. 
An  immemorial  custom  ex- 
ists by  which  when  any 
citizen  has  anything  on  his 
mind  that  he  feels  he 
should  unload  to  the  profit 
or  otherwise  of  the  public, 
a  printed  pronunciamento 
is  issued  and  circulated 
about  the  streets  by  boys, 
handed  out  freely  to  every- 
body in  sight.  This  really 
effective  method  is  some- 
times used  for  important 
matters  of  state. 

The  educational  system 
is  modeled  upon  the  best 
Latin-American  stand- 
ards, with  primary  schools 
of  four  grades  throughout 
the  Republic.  Provincial 
centers  have  schools  with 
two,  and  in  a  few  cases 
four  years  more.  The  Na-  EIGHTH.GRADE  ROOM,  PANAMA 
tional  Institute,  at  the  foot 

of  Ancon  Hill,  maintains  a  normal  school  for 
men  and  a  liceo  which  grants  the  degree  of  Bach- 
elor of  Arts  upon  the  completion  of  about  the 
equivalent  of  the  American  college  freshman 


54     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

year.  The  young  women  are  given  a  normal 
course  in  the  Women's  Normal  School  at  the  Ex- 
position grounds.  There  is  no  coeducation  above 
the  primary  grades.  The  Agricultural  Experi- 
mental Farm  and  School,  abandoned  as  an  ex- 
periment station,  is  used  as  a  reform  school. 

Taboga  Island  lies  off  shore  and  furnishes  a 
point  of  much  interest.  It  is  the  week-end  Mecca 
of  the  Zone  people  and  also  of  many  of  the  Pana- 
manians. There  are  a  good  American  hotel,  sev- 
eral fair  native  hotels,  good  fishing,  tramping,  an 
interesting  native  village,  a  healthful  climate,  and 
a  fine  view — and  all  within  ten  miles  of  Panama. 

If  the  prowler  is  looking  for  real  adventure, 
he  can  seek  for  it  on  Gocos  Island,  three  hundred 
miles  south  of  Panama.  Here  are  said  to  lie 
hidden  somewhere  ten  millions  of  dollars'  worth 
of  treasure,  stolen  from  Callao  and  other  points 
between  1820  and  1830.  Harvey  Montmorency 
wrote  it  up  in  a  book  entitled  On  the  Track  of  the 
Treasure,  and  so  well  did  he  tell  the  story  that 
four  large  expeditions  have  been  organized  and 
sent  to  find  it.  One  man  is  said  to  have  found  a 
little  gold  for  his  pains,  but  the  others  went  home 
poorer  than  they  came.  And  if  these  are  too  easy 
destinations,  there  lie  the  Galapagos  Islands  off 
the  coast  of  Peru,  said  to  contain  many  possibil- 
ities, of  many  kinds.  Peru  is  supposed  to  have 
the  islands  on  the  market,  and  anybody  with  the 
money  can  purchase  one,  all  his  own. 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  CITY  OF  GHOSTS 

No  one  has  ever  satisfactorily  explained  the 
existence  of  ghosts  in  an  enlightened  world,  but 
I  have  a  theory  that  they  survive  because  they 
render  a  real  service.  They  lend  interest  to  life 
and  at  least  keep  us  from  forgetting  the  super  (or 
sub)  natural. 

Likewise  ruins  have  high  value  as  a  link  with 
the  past,  and  with  neither  ruins  nor  ghosts  life 
would  become  a  very  flat  affair.  And  if  ever  a 
spot,  by  history,  tradition,  situation,  and  present 
condition,  was  marked  for  rendezvous  purposes 
by  all  the  tribe  that  gibber  and  squeak  and 
wander  at  night  in  the  dark  of  the  moon,  that 
place  is  Old  Panama. 

The  history  of  Old  Panama  has  been  told,  and 
well  told,  by  other  writers.  Read  it  there,  and 
read  it  before  you  see  the  place.  Many  pilgrims 
go  out  there,  poke  about  among  the  ruins  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  and  exclaim,  "Is  this  all?" 
Without  the  story  the  most  appreciative  pilgrim 
will  miss  the  flavor  of  the  place,  but  without  a 
little  romantic  appreciation  both  the  story  and 
the  ruins  will  fall  short  of  revealing  all  that  the 
place  has  to  give. 

55 


56    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

The  old  town  site  was  a  hopeless  jungle  until 
the  National  Institute,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dr.  Dexter,  cleared  away  the  brush  and  laid  bare 
the  traces  of  streets  and  buildings. 
To-day  the  place  is  in  good  condition 
and  one  may  wander  about  at  will 
and  dream  to  his  heart's  content.  It 
is  no  place  for  joy  rides,  and 
the  roadhouse  is  a  blot  on  the 
place,  but  there  are  people 
still  who  see  nothing  but 
a  refreshment  counter  and 
worthless  stone  heaps. 

One  of  the  favorite  amuse- 
ments of  tourists  and  other 
people  used  to  be  that  of  dig- 
ging for  treasure  at  Old 
Panama.  No  one  ever  found 
anything  of  value,  but  it 
made  a  fine  story  to  tell  upon 
return  to  the  States.  "When 
I  was  digging  for  treasure  in 
Old  Panama" — just  say  it 
and  see  what  a  flavor  it  has. 
It  is  most  probable  that  if  the 
ruins  were  located  in  a  cooler  climate,  there  would 
have  been  a  great  deal  more  digging.  Under 
a  tropic  sun,  however,  it  takes  considerable  bait 
to  induce  anyone  to  indulge  in  such  vigorous 
exercise. 


CONVENT    GARDEN 


A  CITY  OF  GHOSTS  57 

The  treasure  idea  is  easy  to  locate.  Peruvian 
gold  was  all  brought  up  to  Panama  and  stored  in 
warehouses  until  it  could  be  packed  across  to 
Porto  Bello.  There  were  endless  fighting  and 
plots  and  schemes  and  robberies  and  murders  con- 
nected with  the  gold  trade.  Many  a  man  lost  his 
gold,  -and  many  a  man  his  life.  And,  in  conse- 
quence, some  of  the  gold  was  also  lost  in  the 
melee.  What  more  natural,  then,  than  to  look 
about  for  this  lost  treasure  in  the  place  where 
most  of  it  was  stored? 

Now,  there  may  be  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
old  gold  somewhere  about  Old  Panama.  The 
only  difficulty  is  that  no  one  ever  yet  has  been  able 
to  find  any  of  it.  The  probability  is  that  no  gold 
was  ever  left  there  long  enough  to  be  very  much 
lost,  and  the  men  who  did  the  fighting  also  took 
care  of  the  gold.  But  that  does  not  prevent  any 
one  from  "digging  for  treasure  in  Old  Panama" 
if  he  wants  to  do  so. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  treasure  in  Old  Panama, 
and  it  is  to  be  had  for  the  digging.  But  the  dig- 
ging will  be,  not  amid  the  rocks,  but  into  the 
history  of  the  place.  And  the  digger  will  find 
rare  nuggets  for  his  pains.  Balboa,  Pizarro, 
Pedrarias  laid  out  this  town,  and  set  the  pace  for 
the  wild  and  unprincipled  years  that  followed. 
And  Henry  Morgan,  adventurer,  pirate,  and 
general  rascal,  ended  the  story  as  it  was  begun—- 
in crime  and  blood, 


58     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


Accounts  of  the  construction  and  character  of 
the  old  city  represent  it  to  have  been  builded  with 
much  magnificence.  All  the  woods  used  in  build- 

ing were  of  the  fine 
native  mahoganies, 
and  there  were 
hangings,  tapes- 
tries, and  paint- 
ings in  the  sump- 
tuous houses  of  the 
men  who  became 
enormously  rich 
from  the  traffic  of 
the  times.  Re- 
turning ships  from 
Europe  brought 
luxuries  as  well  as 
necessities,  and  the 
gold  trade  people 
maintained  regu- 
lar fleets  of  ships 
and  put  Panama 
__  in  close  touch  with 
X  the  life  of  the  age. 


ROMANTIC   OLD    CONVENTS   SURVIVE 


Si  T  G 


scribed  two  large 

churches,  a  cathedral,  a  "hospital,"  over  two  thou- 
sand large  houses,  and  several  very  large  estab- 
lishments for  the  care  of  the  great  number  of 
pack  animals  used  on  the  trail.  Large  quantities 


A  CITY  OF  GHOSTS  59 

of  gold,  silver,  pearls,  and  gems  of  various  sorts 
were  in  evidence.  In  the  day  of  its  glory  Panama 
was  a  veritable  Arabian  Nights  city,  with  some 
two  hundred  warehouses  for  the  storing  of  stolen 
treasure. 

The  story  of  the  destruction  of  the  old  city  is 
one  of  shocking  cruelty  and  lust,  and  merely 
furnishes  the  last  chapter  of  the  same  tale  of 
crime  that  marks  the  history  of  the  Isthmus  from 
the  finding  of  the  Peruvian  gold  to  the  days  when 
the  murderous  pillages  of  rival  pirates  finally  de- 
stroyed the  commerce  of  the  Isthmus  and  left 
Panama  little  more  than  a  memory  of  former 
glories.  The  burning  of  Old  Panama  marks  the 
turning  point  in  Isthmian  history  and  closes  for- 
ever the  days  of  conquest.  About  this  time  the 
vast  supply  of  Peruvian  gold  became  exhausted, 
and  between  the  failure  of  loot  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  trade  by  brigandage  the  Isthmus  fell  into 
neglect  and  was  nearly  lost  sight  of  by  the  world 
for  two  hundred  years. 

Anyone  who  knows  the  story  of  the  place  will 
find  the  ruins  fascinating  because  they  show  a 
construction  of  the  days  when  men  built  strong 
walls  because  nothing  else  would  stand  the  strain 
of  the  lives  they  lived.  Some  of  the  walls  stand 
as  firm  and  strong  to-day  as  they  did  three  and 
a  half  centuries  ago,  and  unless  removed  by  the 
hand  of  man  they  will  stand  here  a  thousand 
years  hence.  And  when  a  wall  stands  for  cen- 


60    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


turies  in  this  tropic  climate  of  disintegration  it  is 

a  wall  to  remember. 

Most  conspicuous  stands  the  old  church  tower, 
splendid  and  defiant  amid 
the  wreckage  about  its 
feet.  Straight  and  strong 
it  lifts  its  lofty  head  above 
the  treetops,  and,  viewed 
from  any  angle,  is  a  ma- 
jestic figure.  There  is  no 
construction  in  modern 
Panama  to-day  that  may 
be  compared  to  the  grand 
dignity  of  that  sentinel 
tower.  Like  some  old 
prophet,  amid  the  ruins  of 
a  wayward  people,  the 
tower  raises  its  head  and 
stands  in  mute  but  noble 
witness  to  the  reality  of 
the  things  that  endure. 
For  the  tower  was  hon- 
estly built,  and  therefore 
stands.  Against  its  solid 
walls,  builded  from  their 
rock  foundation  straight 

upward,  the  ravages  of  time  have  made  but  little 

impress. 

The  tower  was  part  of  the  cathedral,  and  the 

cathedral  was  one  of  three  or  four  great  churches, 


RUINED    TOWER   AT    OLD 
PANAMA 


A  CITY  OF  GHOSTS  61 

Of  at  least  two  others  well-preserved  ruins  still 
remain,  and  are  well  worth  careful  study.  The 
reddish-brown  coloring  of  the  old  walls  and  the 
vine-covered  stone  help  furnish  endless  tempta- 
tions for  the  artist,  but  no  one  has  yet  given  ade- 
quate expression  to  the  splendid  possibilities  of 
these  ruins. 

Still  more  interesting  vistas  open  to  the  mind's 
eye  of  the  student  with  a  constructive  imagina- 
tion. There  were  churches  many  and  large  and 
beautiful  in  Old  Panama.  And  there  were  pi- 
rates wild  and  wicked  and  hated  in  Old  Panama. 
Who  "ran  the  town"  ?  The  pirates  or  the  priests  ? 
What  relations  existed  between  the  two?  And 
if  there  were  churches  of  such  great  beauty  and 
strength,  why  were  there  also  the  terrible  pirates  ? 
What  were  the  churches  doing  that  they  did  not 
bring  about  a  better  city? 

These  are  hard  questions,  but  to  anyone  who 
knows  conditions  to-day,  and  who  knows  that 
conditions  to-day  are  better  than  they  were  in 
Old  Panama,  the  answer  is  not  far  to  seek.  The 
hungry  and  helpless  peons  did  not  give  the  money 
to  build  those  costly  churches,  though  they  doubt- 
less did  the  hard  work  of  construction.  And  if 
the  pirates  were  good  givers — and  they  doubtless 
were,  under  promise  and  threat — then  they  also 
influenced  the  general  scheme  of  things  in  Old 
Panama.  In  short,  the  churches  of  Old  Panama 
did  not  make  a  very  good  town  of  it. 


62     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


What  a  story  Jack  London  could  have  written 
here!  It  is  too  bad  that  he  did  not  find  Old 
Panama  before  it  was  too 
late.  Not  only  the  ruins, 
but  the  vista  of  royal  palms 
along  the  beach,  with  the  lit- 
tle red-white-and-blue  crabs 
scurrying  about  at  high  tide, 
unite  to  raise  a  sense  of 
romance  that  starts  the 
wheels  of  fancy  revolving  in 
one's  brain.  All  one  needs 
is  a  "long,  low,  rakish  black 
craft  in  the  offing," — there 
it  is  now,  the  very  thing,  a 
big  chinga,  fifty  feet  long 
with  four  sails  and  twenty- 
five  men  on  board,  luffing 
and  tacking  about  into  the 
little  bay  just  around  the 
point.  Pirates  or  fishermen 
—don't  inquire  too  closely; 
either  will  do,  and  both  are 
useful  in  romance. 

In  one  of  the  churches  are 
some  old  graves,  where  some 
natives    have    been   buried, 
partly  for  convenience  and  perhaps  partly  from 
sentiment.     Fine   old  walls   stand  earthquake- 
cracked,  but  still  strong.    Of  roofs  there  are,  of 


COSTA    RICA    TRAPICHE, 
OR    SUGAR   MILL 


A  CITY  OF  GHOSTS  63 

course,  none.  And  back  of  the  church  are  still 
intact  the  foundations  of  a  house  said  to  have 
been  the  house  of  the  governor,  and  the  vaulted 
arches  of  the  old  cellar  storehouse  are  still  intact. 
A  native  lives  in  a  shanty  near  by,  and  he  greets 
the  visitor,  not  with  the  information  that  might 
make  him  useful  and  get  him  a  tip,  but  with  the 
vacant  optimism  of  those  who  feel  that  somehow 
something  is  coming  to  them  whether  they  earn 
it  or  not. 

As  for  the  natives,  none  of  them  know  any- 
thing about  the  place.  The  few  that  live  there 
are  of  the  sort  that  would  camp  under  the  nose  of 
the  sphinx  and  never  look  up  into  his  face.  But 
the  reader  of  this  can  well  spend  a  half  day  amid 
the  most  fruitful  prowling  anywhere  in  Panama. 
He  may  gaze  at  the  splendid  tower  till  the  broken 
walls  about  it  rise  again,  and  the  old  tiled  roof 
once  more  covers  the  worshiping  congregations 
within,  and  the  drone  of  mass  and  the  fragrance 
of  incense  again  ascend  before  the  high  altar. 
And  down  the  old  street,  with  its  one-story 
houses,  once  more  wind  the  pack  trains  and  mule- 
teers and  men  and  women  and  children.  There  is 
excitement  everywhere,  and  commotion  and  curs- 
ing, and  everybody  runs  down  to  the  beach.  And 
if  you  will  turn  about  and  gaze  out  to  sea,  you 
will  see  there  a  curious  craft  with  freakish  sails, 
and  when  it  drops  anchor  and  the  boat  pulls 
ashore,  you  will  see  old  Almagro  himself  step  out 


64     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

on  the  sands  sword  in  hand,  and  with  rough  and 
profane  commands,  take  charge  of  the  unloading 
of  his  golden  cargo.  There  will  be  wild  times  in 
Old  Panama  to-night,  for  the  pack  trains  have 
returned  from  Porto  Bello  with  a  cargo  of  rum, 
and  the  sailors  from  Peru  have  been  long  at  sea, 
detained  by  unfavorable  winds,  and,  like  sailors 
of  other  times  and  climes,  they  are  thirsty.  Out 
from  the  church  door  comes  the  tonsured  priest; 
he  shakes  his  head,  shrugs  his  shoulders,  and 
makes  his  way  down  to  where  the  great  Almagro 
stands,  a  commanding  figure  amid  the  confusion. 
For  the  commander  has  the  gold,  and,  like  all 
explorers  of  his  time,  he  will  be  in  need  of  a 
proper  blessing  by  the  priest ;  and  the  padre,  be- 
ing human,  can  use  a  little  of  the  gold. 

But  while  you  gaze  and  dream,  "dear  reader," 
the  vision  fades  and  "the  tumult  and  the  shouting 
dies,"  and  there  stand  the  ruins,  and  there  swings 
the  sweep  of  the  tropic  sea,  and  you  are  again  in 
the  twentieth  century,  a  little  richer  in  mental 
imagery  for  your  short  excursion  back  into  the 
sixteenth. 

Which  is  to  say  that  dreaming  is  easy  at  Old 
Panama.  Try  it  yourself. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  SPELL  OF  THE  JUNGLE 

WHAT  the  desert  is  to  Arizona  and  the  ice  to 
Alaska  the  jungle  is  to  tropical  America.  He 
who  has  never  traveled  through  a  tropical  jungle 
on  a  trusty  mule  has  missed  something  out  of  his 
life.  He  should  go  back  and  begin  over  again. 

The  jungle  is  much  maligned  and  often  misin- 
terpreted. The  jungle  has  a  place  in  the  agricul- 
tural life  of  the  tropics,  but  it  has  also  a  place  in 
the  aesthetic  and  moral  life  of  mankind.  Here 
at  last  there  is  room,  and  the  starved  and  stunted 
life  may  relax  its  struggle  and  strain  and  expand 
under  the  luxuriance  and  exuberance  of  a  world 
where  all  the  forces  of  life  overflow  and  run  riot 
in  a  thousand  fantastic  forms  of  energy  and 
growth.  Like  the  uncharted  vastness  of  the  polar 
sea  and  the  unbounded,  shimmering  mirage  of 
the  wide  desert,  here  at  last  there  is  plenty  and  to 
spare.  When  a  man  has  stinted  and  economized 
all  his  life  on  a  New  England  hillside  amid  stones 
and  stumps,  the  jungle  takes  the  load  off  his  soul 
and  sets  him  free  in  a  universe  of  new  and  un- 
tested dimensions. 

The  jungle  is  misunderstood.  There  are  jun- 
gles unworthy  of  the  name,  but  these  vast  Pan- 

65 


66    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


amanian  hothouses  are  a  different  matter.  They 
are  not  the  bottomless  morasses  of  deadly  snakes 
and  poisonous  vapors.  Since  men  have  learned 
how  to  live  in  the  tropics  these  terrors  have  large- 
ly retreated  to  the  highly 
colored  accounts  of  trop- 
ical travelers  who  took 
one  look  and  fled — to 
write  a  book  of  timely 
warning  to  the  uniniti- 
ated. These  jungles  are 
not  the  haunts  of  hidden 
horrors  and  poisoned  ar- 
rows. Ferocious  tree- 
dwellers  may  inhabit  the 
unknown  recesses  of  the 
upper  Amazon,  but  they 
do  not  live  in  the  jungles 
of  Central  America  and 
Panama. 

It  takes  just  three  con- 
ditions to  make  a  good 
jungle,  and  these  three 
are  all  present  in  this  fas- 
cinating country.  Moisture,  temperature,  and 
soil;  mix  them  in  the  right  proportions  and  you 
can  produce  a  jungle  at  the  North  Pole,  but  no- 
where can  the  mixture  be  located  except  in  the 
tropics.  When  one  remembers  the  painstaking 
toil  expended  on  the  rocky  fields  of  northern  New 


PAPAYA  TREES 


THE  SPELL  OF  THE  JUNGLE    67 

York  and  then  turns  to  a  land  where  the  problem 
is  not  to  encourage  but  to  prevent  growth,  one 
wonders  how  it  happened  that  our  ancestors 
blundered  into  an  environment  reeking  with  dif- 
ficulties when  they  might  have  had  all  this  over- 
flow of  abundance  for  the  taking. 

There  are  several  brands  of  jungle,  to  be  sure, 
and  distinct  differences  of  kind  may  be  located 
easily.  The  jungle  of  the  overflowed  level  river 
land  is  a  very  different  formation  from  that  which 
climbs  over  the  rolling  hills  and  up  the  mountain 
slopes.  But  everywhere  there  is  the  same  reckless 
riot  of  power  and  life.  Fantastic  growths  are 
here  just  because  there  is  so  much  growing  to  do 
and  so  much  energy  back  of  the  roots  that  there 
are  not  conventional  forms  of  life  enough  to  go 
around  and  life  boils  over  in  every  conceivable 
absurdity  of  form  and  habit.  This  is  no  place  for 
a  niggard.  But  it  is  a  splendid  antidote  for 
smallness  of  soul  and  for  that  dried-up-ness  that 
settles  down  like  a  pall  upon  the  spirits  of  men 
who  never  in  their  lives  have  had  enough  of  any- 
thing or  breathed  an  atmosphere  of  abundance. 

It  must  be  a  petrified  soul  that  can  resist  this 
wanton  abandon  of  vegetable  life.  How  a  man 
can  spend  three  days  in  this  full-blown  exhibition 
of  vital  energy  at  work  in  the  vegetable  world  and 
ever  be  small  again  is  more  than  can  be  readily 
understood. 

Here  is  a  world  where  no  one  ever  need  cry  for 


68    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


more;  there  is  too  much  already.  After  a  few 
days  of  it  one  longs  to  get  out  in  the  open,  to  see 
a  barren  spot  somewhere  just  to  rest  the  surfeited 
soul  a  bit.  It's  all  for  the  asking;  in  fact,  there 
is  no  chance  to  ask;  it  is 
poured  out  of  the  horn  of 
nature's  plenty,  and  all  the 
color  and  charm  and  fantasy 
and  music  and  laughter  and 
glory  of  it  are  piled  in  wild 
profusion  a  hundred  feet 
high,  and  you  cannot  get 
away  if  you  will.  Nature 
at  least  has  a  chance  to 
show  what  she  can  really 
do,  and  it  is  yours  for  the 
looking. 

What  makes  up  a  jun- 
gle? Well,  that's  hard 
to  say.  There  are  mighty 
trees  of  cedar  and  mahog- 
any and  a  hundred  lesser 
breeds,  lifting  their  heads 
into  the  tropic  sky.  There 
are  palms  and  giant  ferns 

of  course.  There  are  wonderful  purple  and  ma- 
genta and  crimson-topped  trees,  whose  glaring 
flat  colors  fairly  shriek  at  you  like  the  bedlam  of  a 
paint  box  let  loose  on  the  sky.  Sturdy  lignum 
vitas  trees  stand  conscious  of  their  high  value  and 


BANANAS   AND    SUGAR    CANE 


THE  SPELL  OF  THE  JUNGLE    69 

rare  qualities.  Ferns  in  profusion,  vast,  varie- 
gated and  immense,  line  the  banks  of  streams  and 
hide  in  the  shadows  of  the  great  trees.  Orchids,  of 
course,  winding  streams  strewn  with  the  flowers 
and  foliage  of  the  dense  mass  overhead,  entranc- 
ing water  streets  and  winding  Venetian  tunnels 
through  forests  so  thick  that  the  sun  never  pene- 
trates the  shadowed  fastnesses  below.  There  are 
paraqueets,  parrots,  singing  canaries,  alligators, 
bananas,  bamboos,  singing  winds,  warbling  blue- 
birds, blackbirds  that  can  render  a  tune,  purples 
and  blues  and  crimsons  and  browns,  all  poured 
out  and  mixed  together  without  stint.  It  is  fas- 
cinating for  a  few  hours,  but  after  a  time  you  get 
overloaded  and  are  ready  to  cry  "Enough."  It's 
great,  but  a  little  stupefying  till  one  gets  used  to 
it. 

The  jungle  of  the  mountains  is  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  and  more  interesting  than  that  of  the 
level  swamps.  Both  are  largely  uninhabited,  for 
men  naturally  like  to  have  a  little  outlook  both 
for  their  lives  and  about  their  habitations. 

But  the  growth  is  about  equally  dense,  pro- 
vided the  soil  and  moisture  are  right  for  the  pro- 
duction of  real  jungle.  From  Puerto  Limon  to 
Almirante  is  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
overland,  and  there  was  a  time  when  practically 
every  mile  of  this  distance  was  untouched  jungle. 
The  United  Fruit  Company  has  conquered  most 
of  it,  until  there  is  now  but  a  day's  journey  on 


70    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


horseback  through  the  connecting  link  between 
the  two  railroad  terminal  points  at  Estrella  and 
the  Talamanca  Valley.  The  one  hundred  miles 
of  rails  run  almost  entirely  through  the  endless 
fields  of  bananas.  But  once  this  was  all  primitive 
wilderness;  that  is,  we  think  it  was,  but  some  of 
the  superintendents  of  this 
clearing  and  planting  work 
say  that  they  have  discov- 
ered numerous  evidences 
that  there  was  a  time  in  ages 
past  when  practically  all  of 
this  vast  area  was  under 
some  sort  of  cultivation. 

There  would  be  a  railroad 
now  across  the  gap  of 
twenty  miles  but  for  the  fact 
that  this  gap  includes  a 
mountain  range  with  rush- 
ing rivers  and  steeps,  gorges 
and  almost  impenetrable 
forests.  Occasional  travel- 
ers cross  this  range  by  the  aid  of  sturdy  mules, 
but  there  is  yet  nothing  that  could  by  any  strain 
of  language  be  called  a  trail.  There  is  simply  a 
"blaze"  through  the  forest  and  occasional  marks 
where  some  floundering  traveler  has  preceded 
the  venturesome  explorer  through  the  depths  of 
some  yawning  mudhole. 

I  crossed  this  range  on  a  day  when  the  sun  was 


CACAO    PODS 


THE  SPELL  OF  THE  JUNGLE    71 

shining  overhead,  but  only  two  or  three  times  did 
its  rays  fall  upon  the  "trail."  The  overhead 
growth  was  so  thick  that  there  was  nothing  but 
dense  shadow  below.  A  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
these  immense  trees  rose  into  the  air,  carrying 
upward  with  them  festoons  of  hanging  vines, 
swinging  rattan,  and  clinging  orchids.  Curious 
enough  are  some  of  these  trees,  with  their  wind- 
ing external  buttresses  and  thin  flanges  thrown 
out  to  brace  against  the  winds.  Banyan  trees 
reach  out  their  long  arms  and  drop  their  fingers 
down  into  the  soil  and  take  root  and  continue 
until  the  tree  literally  "stalks"  its  way  across  the 
mountain  side.  There  are  rubber  trees  and  cedar 
trees  and  mahogany  trees  and  prickly  poisoned 
trees  that  are  the  terror  of  the  natives,  and  trees 
bearing  all  manner  of  jungle  fruits  and  flowers 
and  swarming  with  chattering  birds  and  creep- 
ing things.  Rattan  "ropes"  an  inch  in  di- 
ameter and  two  hundred  feet  long  trip  the  un- 
wary traveler,  and  it  is  useless  to  try  to  break 
them.  They  are  like  steel  cables.  Wild  birds 
are  plentiful,  occasional  baboons  bark  and  bray, 
and  the  mountain  streams  splash  and  plunge 
their  way  through  the  ferns  and  flowers.  The 
Estrella  River  forms  the  highway  for  several 
miles,  and  its  rocky  torrent  must  be  forded  a  score 
of  times. 

He  who  has  never  tried  to  travel  this  "road" 
has  a  new  experience  in  store.     There  are  hill- 


72     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

sides  that  are  all  but  perpendicular,  which  would 
not  be  so  bad,  but  they  are  a  mixture  of  clay  and 
soap  stone  and  moisture,  and  it  is  practically  im- 
possible to  stand  erect  without  holding  on  to 
nearby  saplings.  How  a  laden  mule  can  navigate 
such  a  causeway  of  destruction  is  a  mystery  to  be 
explained  only  by  people  who  understand  mules. 
And  I  rode  a  mule  whose  mastery  of  the  art  of 
trail-navigation  left  nothing  to  be  learned.  In 
the  ignorance  of  my  novitiate  I  alighted  before 
the  first  precipitous  descent  to  which  we  came. 
The  mule,  with  the  conservatism  born  of  experi- 
ence, took  his  time  to  make  the  descent,  and  I 
essayed  to  go  before  and  show  him  how  to  do  it. 
He  watched  me  with  intense  interest,  while  I 
gingerly  approached  the  edge  of  the  slippery 
declivity  and  started  down.  As  a  descent  it  was  a 
complete  success.  At  the  second  step  I  slipped 
on  the  wet  clay  and  went  rolling  and  coasting  to 
the  bottom,  whither  I  arrived  in  record  time, 
plastered  from  head  to  foot  with  the  raw  mate- 
rial of  which  pottery  is  made.  I  struggled  to  my 
feet  and  looked  up  at  the  mule.  He  still  re- 
garded me  intently,  and  I  think  that  he  winked, 
at  least  his  ear  did.  Then  he  deliberately  put  his 
front  feet  over  the  edge,  gathered  in  his  hind 
feet,  and  with  all  fours  together,  sat  down  and 
gracefully  slid  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill.  He  ar- 
rived right  side  up  at  the  bottom,  munching  a 
mouthful  of  grass,  which  he  seized  in  passing  on 


THE  SPELL  OF  THE  JUNGLE    73 


the  way  down,  and  turned  to  look  at  me  with  an 
expression  that  needed  no  interpreter.     And  I 
took  the  hint  and  stayed  on  his 
back  most  of  the  day. 

After  a  solid  day  of  this  dense 
growth  where  we  could  not  see 
more  than  a  stone's  throw  at  any 
time  it  was  with  a  distinct  sense 
of  relief  that  we  caught  sight  of 
daylight  at  last  through  an  open- 
ing ahead  and  came  upon 
the  fringes  of  the  Tala- 
manca  plantation. 

The  Talamanca  Valley 
is  something  quite  worth 
while  in  itself.  Years  ago 
it  was  inhabited  by  Span- 
ish refugees  who  fled  back 
from  the  bloody  attacks 
of  the  ravenous  Carib- 
bean pirates  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  Their 
little  plantations  were  not 
large  and  the  land  was  not 
cleared  very  thoroughly, 
but  they  shifted  their 

planting  places  until  much  of  the  present  area 
was  covered  sooner  or  later  with  platanas.  The 
view  of  this  valley  from  the  hillside  is  surpass- 
ingly beautiful.  Thirty  miles  long,  ten  miles 


PROPOSED    LOCATION   FOB 
REST    CURE 


74     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

wide,  and  surrounded  by  mountains  and  forests, 
the  whole  floor  of  the  valley  is  one  vast,  waving, 
level  field  of  bananas,  and  there  are  few  things 
better  to  look  upon  than  a  valley  level  full  of 
banana  tops.  From  twenty  to  forty  feet  high 
they  stand,  and  their  long,  shady  corridors  are 
like  the  aisles  of  some  great  series  of  cathedral 
chapels,  waiting  for  worshipers  within.  Through 
the  middle  of  the  valley  runs  the  stream  of  the 
upper  Sexola  River  with  its  three  tributaries  and 
their  bluffs.  The  Changuanola  Railway,  which 
is  the  name  under  which  the  United  Fruit  Com- 
pany moved  its  bananas  and  its  men  in  this  great 
plantation,  runs  the  length  of  the  valley,  and  the 
line  of  rails  is  punctuated  by  the  white  cabins  of 
the  black  employees  and  the  houses  and  offices  of 
the  plantation  superintendents  and  foremen. 

Dominating  the  whole  valley  stands  old  Pico 
Blanco,  or  White  Top.  There  is  no  snow  at  the 
summit,  but  there  is  nearly  always  a  white  cloud 
cap  there,  hence  the  name.  This  noble  mountain 
is  the  interest  and  admiration  of  all  dwellers  in 
the  valley.  Its  top  lists  eleven  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea.  It  is  not  as  high  as  Pike's  Peak 
nor  Shasta,  but  it  towers  well  up  toward  the  level 
of  Fujiyama,  and  beside  it  Mount  Washington 
looks  like  a  pigmy  and  the  Adirondacks  are  mere 
foothills.  Back  in  the  canons  and  forests  of  the 
mountain  range  live  the  curious  Talamanca  In- 
dians, whose  tribal  customs  indicate  a  close  affin- 


THE  SPELL  OF  THE  JUNGLE    75 

ity  between  their  ancestors  and  those  of  the  fam- 
ous Indians  of  Quirigua. 

The  difference  between  the  jungle  and  the 
dividend-paying  plantation  is  one  of  organiza- 
tion, capital,  administration,  and  toil.  Add  these 
to  the  jungle  and  you  have  the  plantation.  Take 
them  away  from  the  plantation  and  in  a  very 
short  time  the  jungle  is  again  supreme.  Crowd- 
ing around  the  corners,  peeping  over  the  edges, 
and  creeping  ever  onward,  the  jungle  pushes  its 
jealous  way  behind  the  footprints  of  the  men  who 
essay  to  conquer  its  wild  ways.  But  once  de- 
feated, the  jungle  becomes  a  slave  bearing  costly 
burdens  for  its  master — man. 


CHAPTER  VI 
LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM 

"FORTY  years  ago  I  took  a  bath,  and  the  next 
day  I  felt  chilly,  and  then— 

"Never  mind  forty  years  ago.  What  is  the 
matter  this  morning,  and  why  have  you  come  to 
me  for  medicine?"  chants  the  seasoned  employer 
of  plantation  labor. 

"That  is  what  I  was  telling  you,  senor.  Forty 
years  ago  I  took  a  bath,  and  the  next  day  I  felt 
chilly,  and  then  I  thought  that  I  had  made  a 
mistake,  and  so  I  went— 

"Now,  see  here.  I  have  no  interest  nor  curios- 
ity about  forty  years  ago.  What  is  the  matter 
with  you  now?" 

"Be  patient,  senor.  This  is  important,  and  I 
will  tell  you  all.  Forty  years  ago — "  and  after 
devious  dodgings  the  tale  terminates  in  a  case  of 
fever  or  indigestion,  or  mayhap  only  plain  drunk. 

It  is  ever  thus  with  the  tropic  tao,  or  peon,  or 
ignorante,  or  whatever  may  be  called  the  people 
who  have  grown  up  with  the  soil  and  have  risen 
not  any  above  it.  The  petty  official  who  hears 
complaints  in  any  tropic  land  listens  to  marvel- 
ous reminiscences  through  deep  jungles  of  im- 
aginative memory  before  reaching  present  facts. 

76 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM  77 

"Twenty-five  years  ago  I  had  the  toothache, 
and  then  the  next  week  I  had  a  bad  dream,  and 
after  that  I  had  no  suerte  [luck]  at  all,  until  one 
saint's  day  I  drank  rum  and  ate  rice,  and  the 
rice  make  me  sick — "  is  merely  the  opening 
chapter. 

Every  employer  of  tropic  labor  must  be  judge 
and  jury  for  a  docket  of  petty  cases  that  have  to 
be  adjusted  if  the  wheels  of  industry  are  not  to  be 
paralyzed  in  their  work.  Newcomers  at  this  busi- 
ness of  sitting  in  the  seat  of  judgment  hear  mar- 
velous stories  of  oppression  and  outrage,  in  which 
the  accuser  is  always  innocent — and  always  alone, 
if  possible.  But  experience  breeds  disillusion- 
ment and  skepticism  deep  and  wide,  and  soon  the 
amateur  Solomon  learns  to  distrust  every  story, 
most  of  all  the  first  one  told.  For,  after  the 
plaintiff  has  sworn  that  he  is  telling  the  truth,  or 
may  all  the  saints  strike  him  dead,  and  has  un- 
rolled his  woes  in  orderly  sequence,  he  stands  with 
critical  eye,  watching  to  see  what  impression  his 
art  has  made  upon  the  puzzled  personage  of 
power. 

And  when  the  adjuster  of  affairs  scorns  the 
tale  and  says,  "Get  out  with  you.  I  don't  believe 
a  word  of  that  stuff,"  the  beggar  bows  and  smiles 
a  deprecating  smile  and  begins  all  over  again 
with  a  revised  version  of  the  case,  which  bears 
very  little  resemblance  to  the  first  story,  and 
again  stands  back  to  observe  what  better  success 


78    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


he  may  hope  for  this  time.  And  there  appears  to 
be  no  end  to  the  ready  versions  and  variations  of 
the  woes  of  the  downtrodden  exponent  of  virtue 
whose  humble  bearing  seems 
to  exude  virtue  from  every 
protruding  bare  spot  through 
his  rags. 

"Last  Wednesday  morn- 
ing, I  got  up,  and — would 
you  believe  it? — there  was 
nothing  in  the  house.  There 
was  no  yucca  [counting  off 
on  his  fingers],  no  plantanas, 
no  huevos,  no  carne,  no  mais, 
no  azucar,  no  arroz — absolu- 
tamente  nada.  Yes,  it  was 
last  Wednesday — no,  no, 
senor,  I  am  a  liar — it  was  last 
Tuesday  morning.  And, 
senor,  my  children  were  hun- 
gry, and  I  remembered  that 
there  was  nothing — "  and  so 
on  the  story  goes  to  its  climax 
in  the  claim  that  a  certain 
party,  not  present,  owes  the 
complainer  fifty  cents  for 
real  or  imaginary  value  bestowed,  and  will  the 
owner  please  collect  the  fifty  cents  for  the  starv- 
ing children? 

And  if  this  tale  is  unsatisfactory,  comes  im- 


PICTURESQUE     JUNGLE 
TOWNS 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM  79 

mediately  a  fresh  version  to  the  effect  that  it  is 
another  man  who  owes  a  dollar  because  he 
tramped  across  some  young  corn  and  spoiled  the 
crop. 

It  is  this  fertility  of  imagination  that  makes  up 
for  any  sort  of  accurate  information.  To  the 
American  the  amazing  thing  about  these  people 
is  that  they  know  so  little  about  their  own  very 
interesting  country.  The  American  must  know 
in  order  to  boom  his  town,  but  the  tropic  native 
has  no  idea  of  booming  his  town.  There  is  no  fun 
in  booming,  there  is  nothing  to  boom,  and  a 
boomed  town  would  be  always  stirring  about  or 
starting  something,  and  would  be  a  nuisance  any- 
way. 

I  stood  in  a  village,  quaint  and  curious,  and 
wondered  how  old  it  might  be.  The  bells  hang- 
ing to  a  cross  beam  in  front  of  the  old  church  bore 
figures  on  their  rims — 1722,  they  said;  and  they 
looked  it,  every  inch — or  year. 

Came  the  young  curate  of  the  parish,  a  good- 
looking  and  intelligent  native,  who  talked  a  little 
with  us  pleasantly,  and  lured  us  into  the  old 
church,  where  he  immediately  improved  the  occa- 
sion by  getting  the  collection  basket  and  holding 
it  under  our  noses.  "It  is  a  special  saint's  day," 
he  explained. 

"How  many  people  live  here?" 

He  could  not  tell. 

"How   old   is   the    church?"   we   wanted   to 


80     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


know,  thinking  to  get  a  morsel  of  information 
for  our  crumb  of  contribution. 

He  did  not  know.  The 
question  was  entirely  new  to 
him.  He  had  been  born  in  the 
town,  and  later  showed  us  with 
pride  the  house  in  which  him- 
self, his  mother,  and  his  grand- 
mother had  been  born,  but  as 
to  the  number  of  inhabitants 
or  the  age  of  the  church  it  had 
never  occurred  to  him  to  in- 
quire. 

But  presently  inspiration 
came  to  his  aid.  There  was  an 
ancient  woman  still  living  at 
more  than  a  hundred  years; 
surely  she  would  know  the  an- 
swer to  some  of  these  curious 
questions. 

We  called  on  the  old  wom- 
an.     She    was    nothing    but 
bones  and  parchment,  sitting 
with  her  chin  on  her  knees  on  a 
small  platform  of  slats  which 
she  had  not  left  for  over  two 
years.     She  claimed  one  hun- 
dred and  two  years,  which  was  undoubtedly  cor- 
rect, as  baptismal  records  are  usually  accurately 
kept.     She  certainly  looked  the  part.     The  stu- 


TORTILLA8  ARE   STAPLE 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM 


81 


diante  sat  down  on  the  "bed,"  placed  his  hand 
kindly  on  the  old  woman's  shoulder,  and  told  her 
that  though  she  was  blind  there  were  three 
strangers  who  had  come  to  see  her  and  congratu- 
late her  on  her  great  age.  She  was  pleased  and 
said  so,  but  her  mind  was  as 
feeble  as  her  body,  and  there 
was  little  that  she  could  say. 
When  asked  as  to  the  date  of 
the  "blessing"  of  the  church, 
she  said,  "O  yes,  certainly  I 
can  name  it — it  was  on  Saint 
John's  day." 

"That's  fine,"  enthused  the 
curate.  "Now,  what  year  was 
it,  grandma?" 

"Ah,  that  is  another  matter. 
I  can't  tell  you  now,  but  if 
you  will  come  to-morrow,  I 
may  be  able  to  remember  it 
then." 

We  left  the  next  morning, 
of  course,  without  the  date  of 
the  dedication  day,  but  what  information  was 
lacking  on  this  point  was  amply  made  up  in  in- 
formation concerning  the  population.  We  asked 
seven  people  the  question  and  received  seven  dif- 
ferent answers,  ranging  from  three  hundred  to 
five  thousand.  We  counted  a  hundred  odd 
houses,  indicating  six  or  seven  hundred  people, 


JUNGLE    FOLK 


82     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


but  no  one  there  had  any  idea  or  any  interest  in 
the  matter.  What  difference  did  it  make  any- 
way? 

The  town  of  Nata,  eighty  miles  west  of 
Panama,  was  founded  in  1520, 
one  year  after  the  founding  of 
Old  Panama,  and  one  hundred 
years  before  the 
Pilgrims  landed  at 
Plymouth  Rock. 
Old  Panama  has 
been  a  ruin  for 
two  and  one  half 
centuries,  leaving 
Nata  as  the  oldest 
inhabited  town  in 
the  New  World- 
no  small  distinc- 
tion. 

I  asked  the  lead- 
ing official  if  he 
knew  how  old  the 
town  was,  and  he 
said  that  he  understood  that  it  was  "very  old." 
When  I  suggested  that  it  was  the  oldest  town  in 
America  he  nodded  politely  and  talked  of  some- 
thing else.  I  called  on  the  priest,  an  intelligent 
and  friendly  man,  who  also  understood  that  the 
town  "was  very  old,"  but  its  priority  of  claim  to 
the  oldest  living  municipal  inhabitant  of  the 


THE  COTTER  8  SATURDAY  NIGHT 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM  83 

Americas  had  little  interest  for  him.  He  talked 
on,  complaining  bitterly  of  the  bad  morals  of  the 
people  and  the  small  financial  proceeds  which  the 
parish  yielded  its  spiritual  leader. 

It  is  easy  to  disparage  any  people,  especially 
if  they  speak  a  different  language  from  your 
own.  Most  of  the  things  said  against  the  illit- 
erate natives  of  any  country  are  true,  but  the 
trouble  is  that  they  are  only  a  small  fraction  of 
the  truth. 

A  large  employer  of  native  labor,  who  took 
pride  in  treating  his  men  well  and  paying  them 
promptly,  complained  to  me  that  he  never  could 
keep  steady  labor  on  his  place  for  the  reason  that 
the  men  earned  enough  in  one  week  to  keep  them 
drunk  for  the  next  fortnight,  and  hence  worked 
only  one  week  out  of  three,  leaving  their  families 
to  starve  or  shift  for  themselves  as  best  they 
might.  And  he  told  the  truth. 

But  he  did  not  tell  it  all.  This  same  employer 
distilled  the  rum  on  his  own  place  and  regarded 
it  as  a  paying  business.  When  other  employers 
raised  the  price  for  labor  and  produce  he  refused 
to  do  so  on  the  ground  that  the  more  they  had  the 
worse  off  they  were.  On  the  surface  it  might 
seem  to  be  true. 

But  these  same  laborers,  even  saving  all  pos- 
sible margin  of  wages,  could  not  have  lived  in 
anything  like  comfort  on  sixty-five  cents  per 
day.  Most  of  them  never  see  a  newspaper,  and 


84    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

could  scarcely  read,  and  not  at  all  understand  it 
if  they  did  see  it.  There  is  not  an  item  of  news, 
a  trace  of  historical  knowledge  or  perspective,  a 
gleam  of  scientific  understanding,  a  moving  pic- 
ture show,  or  a  lecture  on  any  subject,  or  a  mus- 
ical program,  nor  any  one  of  the  thousand  things 
that  add  interest  and  widen  the  horizon  of  life — 
none  of  these  things  ever  enter  the  remotest  areas 
of  his  consciousness.  He  lives  in  the  flat,  narrow 
confines  of  a  life  so  small,  so  cramped,  so  pos- 
sessed by  superstition  and  terror  and  ill  will  that 
he  is  not  many  removes  from  the  cattle  with  which 
he  works.  When  this  man  would  celebrate  his 
saint's  day  he  gets  drunk,  organizes  a  bull  fight, 
and  gives  vent  to  every  low  impulse  of  his  nature. 

Is  it  any  wonder  ?  The  only  tingle  of  interest 
that  touches  his  soul  comes  from  adventures  in 
the  realm  of  unfaithfulness  and  drunkenness. 
How  many  of  the  rest  of  us  would  do  any  better 
if  born  and  bred  in  the  mire  of  his  social  inherit- 
ance? 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  moral  hookworm. 
Saint  Paul  called  it  by  another  term,  but  its 
symptoms  are  unchanged.  The  unshod  soul, 
shuffling  through  the  mire  of  degradation,  ac- 
quires from  the  lower  stratum  of  his  environment 
the  infection  of  a  spiritual  destitution  that  lowers 
moral  vitality  to  the  minimum. 

How  comes  this  benumbed  conscience  and  de- 
praved practice?  What  is  the  matter  that  the 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM 


85 


average  of  legitimacy  for  all  Central  America  is 
thirty  per  cent  of  the  total  population,  while  the 
seventy  per  cent  are  born  of 
unmarried  parents? 

It  is  not  for  lack  of 
churches.  Every  town  has 
its  church,  and  the  church  is 
invariably  the  best  building 
in  the  town.  It  stands  on  the 
plaza,  commanding,  central, 
and  usually  more  or  less 
beautiful.  One  can  scarcely 
get  out  of  sight  of  a  church 
tower  in  any  thickly  settled, 
level  country.  And  the 
churches  are  large  enough  to 
contain  almost  the  whole 
population  of  the  town,  at 
least  by  taking  them  in  sev- 
eral installments  at  mass 
hours. 

It  is  not  for  want  of 
priests.  There  are  priests  in 
every  town,  and  most  of  them 
carry  out  pretty  faithfullv  CHURCH  BELLS  OF 

.,  ,.  «      '          ,        .         ..      J,  JAN,    CAST    1722 

the  routine  ot   ecclesiastical 
observances  that  make  up  the  day's  program. 
Black  gowns,  tonsured  heads,  and  beads  and 
rosaries  are  seen  everywhere,  and  the  padre  is 
usually  the  most  influential  man  in  the  town. 


86     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

It  is  not  for  want  of  religion.  Every  house  of 
any  pretensions  has  its  holy  pictures,  often  its 
crucifix,  and  usually  its  rosary.  Women  in  num- 
bers attend  mass  and  go  to  confession. 

It  is  not  for  want  of  opportunity  on  the  part 
of  priests  or  church.  It  is  not  because  of  "church 
competition."  Here  we  have  a  unity  complete 
and  final. 

For  three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  years  the 
priests  and  their  church  have  had  sole,  exclusive, 
and  continuous  occupation  of  Nat  a,  the  oldest 
town  in  America.  I  was  probably  the  first  Prot- 
estant missionary  who  ever  walked  the  streets 
of  the  place.  Here  in  the  oldest  town,  with  the 
longest  occupation  and  the  undisturbed  opportu- 
nity, should  be  found  a  fair  chance  with  these 
people. 

And  what  has  it  done?  The  open-minded  and 
friendly  priest  complained  bitterly  of  the  fact 
that  in  his  parish  only  five  per  cent  of  his  people 
were  born  of  married  parents.  Ninety-five  per 
cent  were  registered  on  his  books  as  "Naturales." 
The  year  before  he  had  administered  over  three 
hundred  baptisms  and  had  celebrated  only  three 
marriages.  "I  can't  get  them  to  marry,"  he 
groaned.  "Practically  speaking,  almost  no  one 
is  married." 

Is  Nata  worse  than  other  towns  ?  Possibly  so, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  "church"  has 
had  a  longer  chance  there  than  in  any  other  city 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM  87 

in  all  America,  and  perhaps  when  the  other  towns 
have  been  exposed  for  the  same  length  of  time  to 
the  system,  they  will  show  equally  advanced  re- 
sults ! 

There  is  this  thing  to  be  said  about  the  char- 
acteristic attitude  of  the  average  priest  toward 
his  people:  he  always  despises  them.  In  many 
lands  I  have  found  this  to  be  true.  Discouraged 
by  the  failure  of  his  system  to  produce  spiritual 
life,  or  even  good  morals,  he  complains  bitterly 
that  the  people  are  indifferent,  careless,  negli- 
gent, immoral,  unfaithful,  and,  not  least  of  vices, 
they  are  poor  pay.  If  they  are  these  things,  no 
one  knows  it  better  than  the  man  who  hears  their 
secret  confessions.  And  that  this  man  should 
come  to  a  chronic  attitude  of  distrust  toward  the 
products  of  his  own  spiritual  husbandry  is  one  of 
the  severest  indictments  against  the  system  that 
produces  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  people 
and  cynicism  in  the  heart  of  the  priest. 

What  was  the  church  doing  to  remedy  this  sit- 
uation with  its  deadly  monotony,  its  superstition, 
ignorance,  andunmorality? 

The  church  was  maintaining  its  round  of  for- 
mulas, saints'  days,  masses,  confessions,  baptisms, 
funerals  for-what-the-traffic-would-bear.  Showy 
processions  and  occasional  celebrations  were  the 
circus  and  movie  for  the  people.  And  on  the  con- 
fession of  the  troubled  priest  himself,  there  was 
no  moral  result.  Out  of  the  dead  past  stood  a 


88     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

mummied  memory  of  the  once  living  church,  and 
its  mumbled  incantations  had  no  power  to  make 
the  dry  bones  live. 

The  only  power  that  seems  able  to  stir  new  life 
in  the  old  mausoleum  is  the  advent  of  a  vigorous 
Protestant  work.  In  rage  and  bitterness  the 
powers  bestir  themselves  and  begin  to  defame 
and  persecute  their  disturbers,  and  in  the  end, 
they  inevitably  give  some  attention  to  reviving 
their  own  decaying  program. 

How  can  a  man  be  well  when  he  is  one  hundred 
dollars  away  from  a  doctor?  With  four  doctors 
located  among  two  hundred  thousand  people 
scattered  over  a  radius  of  forty  by  a  hundred 
miles,  and  all  fees  exorbitantly  high,  what  is  a 
poor  man  to  do  when  illness  overtakes  his  house- 
hold? What  is  he  to  do?  Why,  nothing  at  all, 
except  await  the  end,  either  of  his  illness  or  of 
both  infirmity  and  himself.  What  the  missionary 
needs  is  no  less  Bibles  than  castor  oil  and  quinine 
and  iodine.  I  think  that  I  would  begin  with  a 
moving-picture  program  and  a  clinic,  and  when 
a  little  physical  health  appeared,  and  some  sort 
of  interest  began  to  loosen  the  rusty  hinges  before 
what  occupies  the  mental  space,  I  would  begin  to 
talk  of  something  to  make  life  worth  living.  It 
was  the  way  of  the  Master  to  heal  and  teach  and 
arouse,  and  the  whole  program  of  missionary 
work  might  be  founded  on  "I  am  come  that  they 
might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM 


89 


abundantly."  That  is  the  key  to  the  process. 
These  people  are  not  bad;  they  are  crippled. 
They  are  not  vicious ;  they  are  lifeless.  They  are 
not  rebels:  they  are  very  much  untaught,  back- 
ward children. 

The  system  of  public  schools  is  growing  apace, 


FIRST-GRADE    ROOM,    PANAMA 

but  it  has  a  tremendous  task,  small  support  from 
the  parents,  and  often  open  opposition  from  the 
priests.  In  one  town  a  citizen  remarked  that  on 
examination  day  at  the  close  of  the  term  not  a 
single  pupil  came  to  school,  but  that  it  made  no 
difference,  as  they  were  all  promoted  and  would 
live  just  as  long  whether  they  were  promoted  or 
not.  (How  I  would  have  enjoyed  that,  as  a 


90    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

boy!)  In  another  town  the  supervisor  had  criti- 
cized unfavorably  the  people  for  certain  careless 
habits,  whereupon  the  teachers  took  offense,  all 
resigned  and  closed  the  schools.  The  secretary 
of  education  siding  with  the  supervisor,  all  schools 
remained  closed,  and  the  children  were  happy. 

There  is  one  safety  valve  left  for  people  in 
such  lives,  and  that  is  the  world-old  prerogative 
of  talk.  In  the  long  evenings,  by  the  roadsides, 
on  the  street  corners,  over  the  balconies  flows  an 
endless  stream  of  talk.  Prattle  and  chatter  and 
gossip  and  slander  flow  on  and  make  up  the  only 
scenarios  the  people  know.  Most  of  it  is  harm- 
less. Some  of  it  is  aimless,  and  all  of  it  is  fruitless 
of  anything  except  to  save  the  mind  from  utter 
blankness. 

They  were  chattering  away  in  the  evening, 
three  or  four  women  seeming  unconscious  of  me, 
a  traveler  stopping  for  the  night.  One  subject 
held  undivided  attention  for  much  time — What 
shall  we  cook  for  breakfast?  And  from  that  it 
was  but  a  step  to  that  eternal  solace  of  feminine 
conversation — the  shortcomings  of  men  in  gen- 
eral and  husbands  in  particular.  One  of  the  ani- 
mated declaimers  arose,  struck  a  dramatic  atti- 
tude, and  said,  "To  expect  that  any  man  should 
be  of  any  use  about  the  house  is  impossible,"  and 
the  eloquent  shrug  of  her  shoulders  underscored 
the  remark.  In  vain  I  broke  in  and  protested 
that  in  the  United  States  it  often  happened  that 


LIFE  AT  THE  BOTTOM  91 

the  men  were  successfully  commandeered  and 
detailed  to  the  work  of  kitchen  police,  but  the 
only  reply  was  an  arched  eyebrow  and  another 
shrug.  "Tell  that  to  the  marines,"  was  what  she 
meant. 

There  are  two  measures  of  quantity.  Either  it 
is  "No  hay  sufficiente"  ("There  are  not  enough") 
or  "Hay  bastante,  bastante"  ("Plenty,  plenty") . 
The  population  of  the  next  town  is  one  or  the 
other  of  these  measures.  The  distance  to  the 
river,  the  crops,  the  number  of  children  in  the 
family,  the  tale  of  the  years  that  is  told — it  is  all 
one  thing  or  the  other.  And  the  standard,  in  con- 
trast with  the  artificial  measures  of  a  high  civil- 
ization, is  at  least  true  to  life.  Either  there  is 
enough  or  there  is  not  enough — that  is  about  as 
close  a  distinction  as  the  day's  experience  affords. 
For  that  matter,  all  the  rest  of  us  are  on  one  side 
or  the  other  of  the  same  cleaving  line  of  necessity. 

That  everybody  should  blame  everybody  else 
for  whatever  may  happen  to  be  the  matter  is  the 
most  natural  thing  in  the  world.  Whom  shall  we 
blame  if  not  some  one  else? 

It  is  the  fault  of  the  officials  that  the  country 
is  poor.  It  is  the  fault  of  the  large  landowner 
that  there  is  no  development.  It  is  the  fault  of 
the  municipalities  that  the  towns  are  not  better 
kept,  it  is  because  of  the  officials  that  justice  is 
not  better  administered.  It  is  the  fault  of  the 
Canal  Zone  that  the  good  days  are  gone  forever, 


92     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

and  it  is  the  fault  of  the  American  government 
that  there  are  certain  restrictions  on  native  ten- 
dencies to  move  forward  by  the  backward  jerks 
of  revolution.  A  Costa  Rican  once  said  to  me, 
"This  war  in  Europe  amounts  to  nothing;  but  if 
we  could  get  up  a  good  old-fashioned  revolution, 
I  would  be  on  the  job  to-morrow." 

The  virtues  of  these  people  are  a  surprising 
list,  considering  their  scant  opportunities.  They 
are  kindly  in  dealing  with  foreigners  who  show 
themselves  friendly.  They  do  not  as  a  rule  abuse 
their  children,  which  the  West  Indian  is  apt  to 
do  if  he  is  of  the  baser  sort.  The  native  is  hospit- 
able and  courteous  and  always  willing  to  oblige, 
provided  he  knows  what  to  say  or  do.  To  be  sure, 
the  inventory  of  his  information  is  disappointing, 
even  concerning  such  subjects  as  the  distance  to 
the  next  town  and  the  market  value  of  rice,  but 
he  will  tell  all  he  knows  and  share  what  rice  he 
has.  Traveling  through  the  country  alone,  I 
have  been  shown  every  kindness  and  entertained 
with  the  best  that  was  to  be  had,  and  often  sent  on 
my  way  without  being  allowed  to  pay  for  what  I 
had  received.  "Do  you  think  I  would  take 
money  from  a  guest?"  protested  a  hospitable 
host  with  whom  I  had  spent  the  night  and  who 
had  fed  my  horses,  the  guide,  and  myself,  and  had 
entertained  us  all  evening  with  discussion  of 
many  matters. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  INTERIOR 

WE  had  reached  the  town  of  Anton  the  day  be- 
fore, and  I  had  sent  the  guide  back  with  the 
horses  and  purposed  to  make  my  way  alone.  The 
morning  was  fresh  and  balmy,  as  befitted  the  dry 
season,  even  if  a  night  spent  on  an  antiquated 
cot  in  a  room  next  to  that  occupied  by  a  man  with 
a  racking  cough  and  a  rooster  with  a  clarion  voice, 
were  not  a  perfect  repose.  The  rapport  between 
the  fowl  and  the  afflicted  was  complete :  when  one 
of  them  broke  the  silence,  the  other  immediately 
took  up  the  refrain.  At  breakfast  I  suggested 
to  the  good  wife  of  the  host  that  I  had  heard  that 
if  a  board  were  placed  above  a  rooster's  head  so 
that  he  could  not  stretch  upward,  he  would  not 
crow.  She  was  all  solicitude  at  once  at  the  sug- 
gestion that  the  noisy  cock  had  disturbed  my 
slumbers,  and  I  had  to  protest  my  indifference 
to  such  serenades. 

Down  the  street  I  found  a  little  store  where 
the  owner  had  a  horse  or  two  to  hire  upon  occa- 
sion. Thirty  minutes  of  bicker  and  I  was  astride 
a  wiry  little  native  pony  to  which  a  bridle  was 
unknown,  and  out  through  the  stately  palms  and 
luxurious  bananas  I  made  my  way  to  the  open 


94     PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

country  eastward.  The  river  was  thronged  with 
horses  led  to  water,  and  women  busy  with  their 
domestic  laundry.  It  was  quaint  and  pictur- 
esque. In  some  such  manner  might  the  ancient 
Egyptians  have  gone  about  their  morning  tasks. 
I  have  seen  exactly  the  same  procedure  in  the 
Philippines  and  by  the  rivers  of  southern  China. 

A  mile  or  two  from  the  town  the  trail  mounted 
a  rolling  hillock  and  I  pinched  myself  to  remem- 
ber that  I  was  not  in  New  Mexico.  Straight 
ahead  rolled  the  almost  level  llanos  for  miles  until 
they  were  lost  in  the  hills  by  Chame,  and  the  pur- 
ples and  pinks  of  the  six-thousand-feet  summits 
were  like  a  frame  for  a  picture  whose  southern 
limits  were  in  the  glint  of  the  blue  summer  sea. 
It  was  a  picture  and  a  promise.  For  two  hours 
the  nervous  little  pony  followed  the  trail  across 
the  smooth  plains  and  frequent  streams.  If 
ever  a  land  was  spread  out  as  a  challenge  to  the 
plow  and  seeder,  here  it  was. 

I  sought  a  colonization  site,  where  I  had  heard 
of  a  dozen  plucky  Americans  who  were  undertak- 
ing a  plantation  on  cooperative  lines.  At  last  I 
found  it  in  the  midst  of  as  fine  a  tract  of  land  as 
lies  beneath  the  tropic  skies.  An  old-fashioned 
farm  dinner  made  life  worth  living  after  native 
"chow"  for  days.  Modern  tractors,  plows,  a  ton 
of  cotton  seed,  and  other  signs  of  enterprise  did 
much  to  make  the  place  seem  like  somewhere  in 
the  great  Southwest.  But  the  enterprising 


THE  INTERIOR  95 

Americans  were  harboring  no  delusions  regard- 
ing the  nature  of  their  undertaking.  They  meant 
business  and  had  counted  the  cost. 

An  American  on  the  Canal  Zone  invested  his 
savings  in  land  in  the  interior,  and  during  the  va- 
cation built  a  good  wire  fence.  On  his  second 
visit  the  fence  was  totally  destroyed  by  ax,  fire, 
and  wire-cutters.  The  owner  appealed  to  the 


THE    BEAUTIFUL   SAVANAS    OF    COSTA    RICA 

local  alcalde,  a  brother  of  the  provincial  governor. 
He  demanded  redress  for  his  wrongs.  The  judge 
heard  his  story,  and  then,  striking  a  dramatic 
attitude,  smote  his  breast,  and  exclaimed,  "If 
these  my  friends  had  not  done  this  thing,  I  should 
have  done  it  myself."  Which  was  to  say,  no 
foreigners  need  apply  in  those  parts.  It  is  prob- 
able that  this  outrage  could  not  occur  under  pres- 
ent conditions. 

"The  Panama  politician  thinks  that  all  the  re- 
public begins  in  Las  Bovedas  and  ends  in  Las 
Semanas,"  remarked  a  plantation  owner  of  the 
interior  country. 


96    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Whether  this  is  true  or  not,  few  people  realize 
or  know  anything  of  the  splendid  country  that 
lies  back  of  the  Canal  Zone  and  out  of  reach  of 
the  flitting  traveler.  To  the  average  Canal  Zone 
employee  all  Panama  begins  at  dock  seven  and 
ends  in  the  Administration  Building.  And  for 
the  tourist  who  comes  to  do  the  Canal  in  a  day,  of 
course,  everything  begins  with  the  Washington 
Hotel  and  ends  with  the  Tivoli. 

But  Panama  is  something  vastly  more  signifi- 
cant than  a  couple  of  slow-service,  high-priced 
hotels.  The  Isthmian  Republic  is  an  empire  in 
possibilities,  entirely  apart  from  the  Canal  Zone, 
though  the  development  of  the  latent  riches  of  the 
country  is  most  vitally  related  to  the  Canal 
enterprise.  And  the  rich  belt  of  land  that 
binds  together  two  continents  is  something  very 
much  larger  than  the  interesting  little  city  that 
bears  the  name  of  Panama. 

Back  of  the  ten-mile  strip  controlled  by  the 
United  States  stretches  a  land  abounding  in 
natural  resources  which  make  it  potentially  a 
factor  of  agricultural  and  economic  importance. 
To  the  uninformed  citizen  of  the  United  States 
and  other  countries  the  Republic  of  Panama 
is  a  mere  shoestring  tying  together  the  two  con- 
tinents, lest  the  pair  become  separated  and 
one  of  them  lost.  We  look  at  the  Isthmus  in 
contrast  with  the  two  vast  continents  that  lie  to 
the  northwest  and  southeast,  and  the  connecting 


THE  INTERIOR  97 

link  appears  small.  Panama  suffers  from  com- 
parison with  its  big  neighbors. 

Compared  with  well-known  and  important  in- 
sular holdings  in  the  Caribbean  group,  Panama 
assumes  entirely  different  proportions.  Panama 
is  two  thirds  as  large  as  Cuba  and  has  one  third 
of  Cuba's  population.  Panama  is  about  the  size 
of  Portugal,  is  four  times  as  large  as  Salvador, 
seven  and  one  half  times  as  large  as  Jamaica,  and 
nine  times  the  size  of  Porto  Rico.  Panama  is  as 
large  as  all  New  England  except  Maine,  and 
nearly  equals  the  combined  area  of  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  and  West  Virginia. 

There  are  interior  areas  of  well-watered,  rich 
soil  that  equal  whole  States  in  size  and  yet  are 
entirely  unknown  to  many  residents  of  the  Canal 
Zone.  The  Chiriqui  Province  has  a  coast  line  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty-three  miles  and  contains 
as  much  land  as  Delaware,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Long  Island  combined.  The  rich  agricultural 
region  in  the  provinces  of  Code,  Veraguas,  Los 
Santos,  and  Herrera  is  as  large  as  the  State  of 
Connecticut.  The  region  east  of  Panama  City 
reaching  out  to  Chepo  is  as  large  as  Rhode 
Island,  and  in  the  Darien  country  is  an  area  al- 
most unknown,  but  abounding  in  rich  resources 
which  would  cover  the  map  of  New  Jersey  with 
a  good  margin. 

It  is  supposed  that  no  one  lives  in  this  large 
territory  except  the  Americans  on  the  Canal 


98    PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Zone  and  inhabitants  of  the  two  cities  of  Panama 
and  Colon.  This  is  also  indicative  of  ignorance. 
The  Republic  of  Panama  has  two  thirds  as  many 
people  as  Paraguay  or  Jamaica,  and,  as  previ- 
ously stated,  one  third  as  many  as  Cuba,  as  many 
as  Montana,  Wyoming,  and  Idaho  combined,  or 
is  about  equal  to  Utah,  Nevada,  and  Arizona  put 
together. 

On  the  basis  of  resources  and  soil  and  climate 
and  accessibility  to  market,  Panama  can  support 
a  population  many  times  her  present  numbers. 
Her  capacity  for  supporting  population  from  her 
own  products  is  larger  than  that  of  most  of  the 
States  of  the  Union,  acre  for  acre.  Panama's 
resources  are  as  good  as  those  of  Jamaica  or 
Porto  Rico  or  Cuba.  On  the  basis  of  Jamaican 
population  there  should  be  six  and  one  half  mil- 
lion people  in  Panama,  and  if  the  number  of  peo- 
ple per  square  mile  were  equal  to  that  of  precip- 
itous Porto  Rico,  we  would  have  a  population  in 
Panama  of  ten  and  one  half  million,  which  is 
more  than  live  west  of  a  north  and  south  line 
drawn  through  Denver,  Colorado. 

That  no  such  population  lives  to-day  in  Pan- 
ama is  due  to  political  causes  more  than  any 
other  factor.  The  population  of  Porto  Rico  has 
nearly  doubled  since  American  occupation  ex- 
changed the  old  regime  for  the  new.  The  barren 
deserts  of  the  great  Southwest  are  becoming 
fertile  and  populous  regions  because  the  people 


THE  INTERIOR 


99 


who  are  possessing  the  land  have  a  fair  chance, 
and  know  that  they  will  be  assured  a  market  for 
their  produce  and  security  for  their  lives  and 
property.  Given  political  security,  monetary 
stability,  market  accessibility,  and  assurance  of 
economic  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment, there  are  no  immediate  limits  to  the  popu- 
lation that  Panama  may  support  in  comfort. 


SHIPPING    COSTA    RICA    VEGETABLES    TO    PANAMA 

Political  stability  for  the  government  of  Pan- 
ama is  assured  by  the  relations  which  exist  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  Isthmian  Re- 
public, a  condition  which  exists  in  no  other  Span- 
ish-American republic.  The  proximity  of  the 
Canal  assures  a  world  market.  The  climate  and 
soil  and  water  supply  nature  has  provided  with 
lavish  hand.  Sanitation  and  hygiene  have  be- 
come exact  sciences,  and  the  matter  of  retaining 


100  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

good  health  in  the  tropics  is  no  longer  a  problem. 
There  is  still  good  land  to  be  had  on  favorable 
terms,  but  the  supply  will  soon  be  controlled  by 
monopolists  who  are  seizing  the  present  oppor- 
tunity to  load  up  their  future  bank  accounts, 
while  war  conditions  produce  a  general  depres- 
sion of  the  world's  development  forces. 

The  present  interior  population  includes  three 
distinct  classes  of  people.  The  original  Indian 
stock  still  exists,  pure  and  often  wild,  in  the  high 
mountains  and  remote  regions  of  the  country. 
These  Indians  are  beginning  to  emerge  from 
their  fastnesses  and  get  acquainted  with  their 
neighbors,  now  that  they  are  sure  of  police  pro- 
tection when  they  come  out.  But  their  number 
is  small  and  they  are  a  negligible  factor  in  the 
totals. 

The  West  Indians  are  an  importation,  and 
while  they  are  easily  adapted  to  the  climate  and 
form  the  staple  of  labor  supply  for  the  Canal, 
they  are  not  the  Panamanians  and  never  will  be 
except  as  they  mix  with  the  native  stock  and 
shade  off  the  colors  that  exist  in  such  confusion. 
The  Negroes  and  Panamanians  are  much  more 
distinct  in  the  interior  than  about  the  Zone  with 
its  terminal  cities,  where  the  remnants  of  hu- 
manity have  been  stirred  together  for  four  hun- 
dred years.  West  Indian  populations  exist  in 
predominance  only  on  the  plantations  of  the 
United  Fruit  Company,  where  they  supply  the 


THE  INTERIOR  101 

labor  for  the  operation  of  these  vast  enter- 
prises. 

The  Panamanian  is  the  predominant  man  in 
the  interior  country.  He  is  not  black,  nor  is  he 
entirely  white,  but  he  has  straight  hair  and  fea- 
tures that  indicate  that  he  is  a  descendant  of  the 
original  Indian  stock,  mixed  with  the  Spanish 
conquerors  who  overran  the  country  in  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries. 

Probably  the  Panamanian  has  had  less  oppor- 
tunity for  advancement  than  the  people  of  any 
other  country  in  America.  He  has  had  no  chance 
for  national  life  or  political  self-expression.  He 
has  been  the  victim  of  the  most  vigorous  and  long- 
continued  era  of  piracy  and  plunder  that  the  New 
World  has  experienced.  He  has  suffered  from 
bad  leadership  when  he  has  had  any  leadership 
at  all.  He  has  been  exploited  by  everybody  who 
came  to  the  Isthmus.  From  the  days  of  Morgan 
down  to  the  formation  of  the  present  Republic, 
under  American  protection  and  guarantee  of 
peace  within  and  without,  this  native  has  been 
the  outcast  of  the  world  and  the  national  goat  of 
the  American  flock  of  nations.  He  has  been 
kept  in  ignorance  and  superstition  by  the  exclu- 
sive control  of  a  system  of  religious  oppression 
and  subjection,  and  if  by  chance  he  happened  to 
acquire  anything  worth  getting,  somebody  was 
always  ready  to  take  it  away  from  him. 

This  native  supplies  the  labor  for  such  enter- 


102  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

prises  as  have  been  launched  in  the  fertile  western 
regions  of  Panama.  With  anything  like  good 
treatment  he  gives  a  return  for  his  wages,  and  if 
he  has  a  chance  to  acquire  sound  health,  an  intel- 
ligent outlook  on  life,  and  a  share  in  the  results 
of  his  labors,  he  can  be  made  over  into  a  good 
citizen.  He  is  not  a  bad  citizen  now,  but  he  is 
very  much  undeveloped. 

The  products  of  this  great  interior  region  are 
many  and  their  proceeds  in  the  world's  markets 
are  profitable.  Present  prices  make  large  oppor- 
tunities for  investment,  and  a  reorganization  of 
marketing  facilities  will  mark  the  beginning  of 
,an  era  of  prosperity  for  Panama.  The  list  of 
products  now  being  raised  in  and  exported  from 
Panama  is  a  surprisingly  long  one,  and  the  total 
of  returns  from  these  commodities  would  give  a 
western  real  estate  promoter  material  for  many 
prospectuses  and  promises. 

The  chief  products  of  the  country  at  present 
are  bananas,  lumber,  rice,  sugar,  cacao,  meat, 
citrus  fruits,  corn,  coffee,  and  coconuts.  -But 
there  are  a  hundred  other  products,  many  of 
which  indicate  large  returns  if  produced  and 
marketed  on  a  commercial  scale.  Rubber,  ivory, 
nuts,  hides,  beans,  pineapples,  potatoes,  yams, 
yucca,  cotton,  tobacco,  plantain,  a  long  list  of 
fruits  and  vegetables  of  high  value,  and  a  number 
of  minerals  are  but  a  few  of  the  useful  commod- 
ities now  being  supplied  to  the  markets  of  the 


THE  INTERIOR 


103 


Canal  Zone  and  the  world  from  the  interior  coun- 
try of  Panama.  Nearly  every  vegetable  that 
grows  in  the  temperate  climate  does  well  in  Pan- 
ama. Some  of  the  native  fruits,  such  as  papayas, 
mangoes,  and  alligator  pears,  are  of  delicious 
flavor  and  high  value.  The  waters  of  Panama 
abound  in  vast  quantities  of 
fish,  and  there  is  supply  for 
a  number  of  fish  canneries. 
Live  stock  thrives  and  is  pro- 
duced in  considerable  num- 
bers in  the  provinces  of  Cocle 
and  Chiriqui.  The  Canal 
Zone  is  now  being  used  as  a 
farming  enterprise  and  stock 
grazing  range  by  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Zone  with  the 
intention  of  making  the  Zone 
area  self-supporting  in  meat 
#nd  fruit  and  vegetables. 

With  an  average  import 
trade  of  ten  millions  and  an 
export  of  more  than  half  that 
amount,  Panama  is  even  to- 
day a  factor  in  the  world's  markets.  It  must  be 
said  that  the  largest  item  on  the  import  list  is  that 
of  goods  shipped  to  the  Zone,  and  that  the  chief 
export  is  bananas  shipped  from  Almirante,  but 
these  items  indicate  large  possibilities  in  further 
developments  of  territories  as  yet  untouched. 


GOOD    PINEAPPLES 
GROW    HEBE   '" 


104  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

The  interior  of  Panama  includes  three  general 
types  of  country,  very  different  in  climate  and 
produce.  The  high  mountains  are  a  large  area  of 
country,  much  of  which  is  fertile  soil  clear  to  the 
peaks,  and  all  of  which  on  the  northern  slopes  is 
covered  with  jungle  and  forest.  These  wooded 
slopes  are  wet  with  abundant  rainfall,  and  luxuri- 
ant foliage  of  tropical  forms  bewilders  the  trav- 
eler with  illusions  of  fantastic  creations  of  nature 
run  mad  over  the  earth.  These  mountainous 
parts  are  for  the  most  part  uninhabited,  except  by 
the  more  or  less  wild  Indians,  who  live  apart 
much  as  they  were  living  four  hundred  years  ago. 
No  white  men  have  tried  to  maintain  themselves 
in  these  regions,  and  in  some  districts  it  is  said 
that  a  white  man's  life  is  unsafe  overnight.  Trop- 
ical beasts  and  reptiles  and  birds  abound  among 
the  weird  forms  of  vegetation  that  seem  to  be  per- 
petrating grotesque  jokes  on  the  bewildered  vis- 
itor to  the  regions  beyond  the  realm  of  civilized 
habitations.  There  are  as  yet  no  efforts  made  to 
establish  towns  or  plantations  in  this  country. 
Yet  if  cleared  and  cultivated,  these  regions  are 
.capable  of  supporting  a  population  as  dense  as 
that  of  Porto  Rico,  where  the  steep  hills  and 
rocky  peaks  are  covered  with  a  population  of 
.over  three  hundred  per  square  mile. 

The  jungle  lands  of  Panama  are  elsewhere 
described,  and  where  there  is  a  jungle  there  are 
always  rich  land  and  abundant  water,  sometimes 


THE  INTERIOR 


105 


too  much  water  and  need  of  drainage.  The 
Canal  Zone  is  mainly  jungle  land,  and  where  it 
has  been  cleared  for  cultivation  excellent  results 
are  attained.  The  cost  of  clearing  this  jungle 
is  not  so  great  as  would  appear  from  the  fact  that 
for  bananas  and  many  other 
forms  of  crop  the  trees  and 
brush  are  cut  down  and  after  a 
time  burned,  and  no  further 
effort  is  made  to  clear  the  land 
.except  about  four  cleanings  per 
year  with  a  ma- 
chette.  Anything 
like  plowing  is  un- 
thought  of  for  ba- 
nanas  and  some 
other  leading  crops. 
Even  sugar  is  often 
planted  and  left  to 
;shift  for  itself, 
under  native  meth- 
ods, which  are  sub- 
ject, of  course,  to 
improvement. 

The  third  class  of  land  in  Panama  is  the  level  or 
rolling  prairie  land  known  as  savanas  or  llanos. 
These  lands  lie  for  the  most  part  in  the  valleys 
back  of  Bocas  del  Toro  and  along  the  southern, 
or  Pacific,  coast  of  the  country.  From  Chame  to 
Cape  Mala  a  belt  of  level  country  sweeps  around 


DEAD    TIMBER   IN    GATUN    LAKE    NOW 
COVERED    WITH    ORCHIDS 


106  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

the  Parita  Bay.  From  ten  to  forty  miles  back  of 
the  coast  rise  the  high  mountains,  and  this  fertile 
strip  of  country  averages  about  thirty  miles  in 
width  and  is  over  a  hundred  miles  long.  Rolling 
country  extends  on  west  of  this  plain,  but  the 
plain  itself  contains  enough  good  farming  land 
to  feed  several  millions  of  people.  It  is  watered 
and  drained  by  frequent  rivers  which  cut  across 
from  the  mountains  to  the  sea  every  three  or  four 
miles  and  furnish  every  facility  for  cultivation. 
Most  of  this  level  country  is  first-grade  soil  and 
is  adapted  to  the  growing  of  almost  any  of  the 
products  of  this  tropical  land.  The  general 
appearance  of  this  open  country  suggests  New 
Mexico  or  Southern  California  much  more  than 
any  land  below  the  tropic  of  Cancer.  Its  numer- 
ous towns  and  occasional  good  roads  suggest  a 
newly  opened  territory  in  the  west,  where  there 
are  abundant  opportunities  for  growing  up  with 
the  country.  The  newcomer  is  apt  to  be  deceived 
into  thinking  that  all  things  are  now  ready  and 
all  he  has  to  do  is  to  move  in. 

In  the  extreme  western  part  of  Panama  lies 
the  great  Chiriqui  Province  with  its  best-devel- 
oped region  in  the  entire  Republic.  Here  are 
great  cattle  ranches,  sugar  fields,  rice  plantings, 
cotton  farms,  cornfields,  and  here  are  American 
companies  working  to  develop  modern  civilized 
conditions.  Here  is  the  Chiriqui  Railroad  be- 
tween Pedrogal  and  Boquette,  with  a  branch  run- 


THE  INTERIOR  107 

ning  westward.  More  interest  has  centered  in 
this  region  than  in  any  other  part  of  Panama,  and 
if  the  proposed  railroad  from  Panama  to  David 
is  ever  built,  the  whole  southern  slope  of  western 
Panama  will  suddenly  appear  on  the  map  of  the 
world's  granaries. 

Road-building  presents  no  unusual  difficulties 
in  this  region  such  as  confronted  the  Americans 
in  the  Philippines  when  they  built  the  Benguet 
road  up  from  Dagupan.  Rainfall  is  high,  but  the 
country  is  comparatively  level  and  well  drained, 
and  in  many  of  these  western  provinces  a  graded 
dirt  road  has  kept  in  good  condition  for  ten  years 
without  repairs.  During  the  dry  season  it  is  now 
possible  to  travel  by  coche  over  much  of  this  coun- 
try. 

The  climate  of  this  interior  country  is  dryer 
and  cooler  than  that  of  Panama,  which  lies  in  the 
jungle  area.  In  the  dry  season,  which  is  also  the 
windy  season,  and  lasts  in  western  Panama  from 
mid-December  to  late  in  April,  health  conditions 
are  excellent,  and  with  proper  precautions  they 
are  good  all  the  year  around.  Needless  to  re- 
mark, the  natives  take  no  precautions  whatever. 

Good  drinking  water  can  be  secured  by  sink- 
ing properly  located  wells,  and  this  water  shows 
freedom  from  minerals  of  a  deleterious  nature. 
There  are  seaports  for  coast  vessels  at  almsot 
every  river  mouth,  and  roads  lead  back  from  these 
to  the  interior  towns. 


108  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

There  is  a  fascination  about  travel  through 
these  interiors,  But  the  trip  must  be  made  dur- 
ing the  dry  season.  We  left  a  large  town  one 
morning,  paused  on  a  hilltop  to  take  a  picture, 
which  included  a  troop  of  cavalry  out  on  a  prac- 
tice march.  It  was  late,  and  the  three  of  us  de- 
parted at  good  speed,  soon  outdistancing  the  sol- 
diers. Two  days  later  a  chance  traveler  informed 
us  that  the  military  men  were  anxious  to  inter- 
view travelers  who  had  broken  the  rules  with  a 
camera  and  then  vanished  from  sight.  We 
passed  the  encampment  on  our  way  back,  hung 
about  town  two  hours,  and  proceeded.  That 
night  a  solitary  mounted  soldier  paused  by  our 
camp  and  remarked,  "I'll  bet  you  are  the  fellows 
they  are  hunting."  We  suggested  that  we  were 
waiting  to  be  found.  Two  weeks  later,  a  secret 
service  man  called  and  inquired  as  to  our  business 
on  that  trip.  Which  is  to  say  that  Panama's 
interior  is  a  roomy  place  in  which  a  man  might 
easily  lose  himself  or  find  an  empire.  A  good 
government,  an  infusion  of  energy,  and  a  supply 
of  capital  will  make  a  rich  land  of  nature's  great 
virgin  farm. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
ECONOMIC  WASTE 

IF  it  is  true  that  South  America  is  the  victim 
of  a  bad  start,  it  may  also  be  said  that  Panama  is 
the  net  result  of  a  continuous  and  consistent  fol- 
low-up campaign  of  wholesale  demoralization 
through  a  long  period  of  years. 

Beginnings  are  apt  to  be  determinative,  and 
when  reenforced  by  continuous  applications  of 
similar  influences,  are  sure  to  set  a  stamp  on  a 
long  period  of  civilization.  Three  centuries  of 
rule  or  misrule  make  a  considerable  impression 
,on  any  people.  There  is  something  more  than 
climate  to  be  taken  into  account  in  the  search  for 
causes  of  the  present  conditions  in  Panama. 

The  entire  colonial  program  of  Spain  differed 
radically  from  that  of  the  English  in  Canada  or 
the  United  States  in  Hawaii  or  the  Philippines. 
The  leading  motive  of  the  conquistadores  was  the 
love  of  gold.  Plunder,  rapine,  and  devastation 
followed  in  the  trail  of  the  adventurers  who 
fought  their  way  across  Panama  and  conquered 
Peru.  Missionary  zeal  there  was,  but  so  mixed 
were  the  motives  of  these  early  heralds  of  the 
cross  that  the  occasional  man  of  pure  and  peace- 
ful methods  was  often  supplanted  by  the  monk 

109 


110  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

who  used  all  means  that  he  might  make  "Chris- 
tians" of  men  who  had  no  alternative  but  to  be 
baptized  or  destroyed  outright.  "Better  be  dead 
than  be  damned,"  thought  the  energetic  priests. 
Never  was  a  dastardly  deed  wrought  by  the  con- 
queror but  there  was  a  priest  at  hand  with  heav- 
en's blessing  on  the  crime.  If  this  is  doubted,  read 
the  unchallenged  Prescott's  Conquest  of  Peru. 

Spanish  colonial  policies  had  small  regard  for 
the  rights  or  development  of  the  conquered.  It 
was  one  of  the  viceroys  of  Mexico  who  said,  "Let 
the  people  of  these  dominions  learn,  once  for  all, 
that  they  were  born  to  be  silent  and  obey,  and  not 
to  discuss  nor  have  opinions  in  political  affairs." 

The  native  village  of  the  far  interior  country, 
away  from  the  main  roads  and  untouched  by  up- 
lifting influences,  exhibits  the  situation  at  its 
worst;  but  even  so,  these  same  villages  exhibit  a 
better  condition  than  do  the  wretched  Indian  huts 
of  the  high  Andes  farther  south.  The  population 
of  these  distant  barrios  on  the  Isthmus  can  hardly 
be  classified  on  distinct  lines;  every  symptom  is 
accounted  for  and  every  unfavorable  trait  ex- 
plained by  historical  factors  and  social  forces  that 
have  combined  to  make  remote  Panama  what  it 
is  to-day.  There  can  be  no  radical  change  in 
these  conditions  until  some  new  program  of  social 
uplift,  educational  progress,  and  spiritual  life  is 
introduced  to  cause  a  fresh  reaction  and  begin  a 
new  life. 


ECONOMIC  WASTE 


111 


The  ignorant  native  bears  an  intolerable  bur- 
den of  superstition.  His  contact  with  the  form 
of  church  life  that  exists  in  these  towns  is  mainly 
expressed  in  the  celebration  of  occasional  fiestas 
and  the  payment  of  fees  for  services  rendered, 
and  supposed  in  some  way  to  benefit  the  contrib- 


INTEBIOR   MEAT   MARKET 

utor  or  his  dead  relatives.  If  "the  test  of  a  reli- 
gion is  its  results  upon  a  people,"  then  the  impar- 
tial observer  must  draw  his  own  conclusions. 

That  these  interior  towns  are  intensely  con- 
servative is  to  be  expected.  How  could  it  be 
otherwise  than  that  the  methods  of  the  fathers 
should  be  good  enough  for  the  sons?  If  human 
progress  is  not  the  result  of  dominant  inner  forces 
resident  in  human  nature,  but  comes  from  the  ap- 
plication of  external  stimuli,  then  the  Pana- 


112  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


manian  may  have  some  excuse  for  his  situation,  in 
a  social  history  that  has  afforded  little  incentive 
for  exercise  of  enterprise  or  industry. 

If  the  far  interior  of  Pan- 
ama is  to  be  judged  by  pres- 
ent industrial  efficiency,  the 
case  is  lost  before  the  trial  be- 
gins. General  absence  of 
everything  that  marks  a  high 
grade  of  living  emphasizes 
the  failure  of  the  status  quo. 
Incompetence,  bad  manage- 
ment, childishness  cry  aloud 
from  rotting  buildings,  rust- 
ing machinery,  neglected 
plantings,  impassable 
"roads,"  and  impossible  offi- 
cials. Streets  knee-deep  in 
mire,  mud-floored  houses, 
through  which  pigs  wander 
at  will,  shiftlessness,  dirt,  in- 
sanitation  are  the  register  of 
the  wet  season  in  interior 
Panama.  The  outstanding 
church  building  is  often  itself 
dirty  and  disheveled.  Sidewalks  exist  only  as 
balconies  for  individual  houses,  and  vary  in  height 
at  the  caprice  of  the  builder,  making  the  middle 
of  the  street  the  only  convenient  highway  for  the 
passers-by. 


THE  FLAVOR  OF  OLD  SPAIN 


ECONOMIC  WASTE 


113 


The  bulk  of  this  out-of-the  way  business  is 
handled  by  the  ever-present  Chino  with  his  little 
tienda.  If  there  is  no  Chinese  store  in  the  town, 
it  is  because  the  town  is  too  poor  to  support  one. 
Business  involves  effort  and  industry,  both  dis- 
tasteful to  the  native,  but 
breath-of-life  to  the  Chinese. 

Inspection  of  some  native 
towns  creates  the  impression 
that  everybody  just  sits 
around  all  day.  Along  the 
streets  the  people  lounge  the 
idle  hours  away.  Hundreds 
of  young  men  lie  about,  rock- 
ing in  chairs,  lying  in  ham- 
mocks, hanging  about  cor- 
ners. Women  slowly  move 
about  their  household  duties, 
but  the  men  are  experts  at  the 
rest  cure,  and  scarcely  move 
at  all.  Once  a  young  man 
gets  a  pair  of  shoes  and  a 
necktie,  his  industrial  career 
abruptly  terminates,  and 
thenceforth  he  toils  not,  neither  does  he  spin.  He 
has  arrived  and  is  content. 

Lack  of  energy  brings  inevitable  localization 
of  all  interest  and  action.  Most  of  the  people 
have  never  been  any  distance  from  home  and  have 
no  desire  to  travel.  Travel  means  exertion  of 


TAKING  THE  REST  CURB 


114  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

some  kind.  I  asked  a  guide  to  go  one  day  further 
than  the  first-day  trip  for  which  I  had  hired  him, 
and  he  returned  an  embarrassed  and  deprecating 
smile,  as  if  I  had  asked  him  to  go  to  the  French 
front.  It  was  too  far  from  home. 

It  is  impossible  to  get  information  worth  any- 
thing about  the  country.  "How  many  people  live 
in  this  town?"  brings  one  of  two  answers.  Either 
it  is,  "I  do  not  know,"  or  it  is  "Bastante" 
("Plenty").  "How  far  is  it  to  Los  Santos?" 
brings  something  like,  "Senor,  when  the  sun  is 
there  [pointing]  you  set  out  on  your  journey,  and 
when  it  is  over  there,  you  will  arrive." 

We  crossed  a  well-traveled  road. 

"Where  does  this  road  lead?" 

"To  the  port,  senor." 

"And  where  does  the  other  end  of  it  go?" 

"To  San  Pedro,  senor." 

"How  far  is  it  to  the  port?" 

"The  same  distance  as  to  San  Pedro." 

"And  how  far  is  that?" 

"Bastante  lejo,  senor"  ("Plenty  far,  sir") . 

Cultivation  of  crops  is  unknown.  When  the 
brush  and  trees  are  cleared  the  stumps  are  left 
about  two  feet  high;  it  is  easier  to  do  the  chop- 
ping at  that  point  than  lower  down.  After  the 
fallen  growth  has  sufficiently  dried  out  it  is 
burned  off  and  the  stumpy  field  usually  planted 
to  corn.  This  corn  is  allowed  to  shift  for  itself 
until  ripe,  and  after  the  stalks  have  rotted  awhile 


ECONOMIC  WASTE 


115 


the  land  may  have  an  application  of  grass  seed 
and  be  used  for  pasture,  in  hope  that  the  stock 
will  wear  down  the  stumps  until  it  becomes  at 
last  possible  to  perform  an  athletic  feat,  called  for 
want  of  a  more  accurate  term,  "plowing."  I  saw 
four  oxen  all  pulling  in  different  directions,  while 


THE    OXEN    STAGE    OF    AGRICULTURE 

a  plow  occasionally  disturbed  the  weedy  surface 
of  the  ground  and  turned  up  irregular  lumps  of 
hard  soil.  The  proprietor  looked  on  with  pride 
and  asked  if  I  had  ever  plowed.  I  had.  Did  I 
plow  like  that?  I  did  not.  When  this  plowing 
has  been  acted  out,  and  some  sort  of  clod-break- 
ing has  taken  place,  sugar  cane  is  planted,  and 
the  work  of  cultivation  is  ended.  For  a  dozen 
years  the  cane  will  produce  annual  crops  of  more 
or  less  value  without  any  attention  whatever 
other  than  the  cutting  of  the  cane  when  ready 
for  the  mill. 

An  interior  road  is  an  experience.  A  road  is 
a  route  of  travel  along  which  various  persons 
make  their  way  as  best  they  are  able,  under  such 
conditions  of  weather  and  impassability  as  hap- 
pen to  exist.  In  the  dry  season  some  of  these 


116  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

tracks  wear  down  to  a  condition  in  which  a  cart 
can  be  coaxed  over  the  right-of-way.  In  wet 
weather  nearly  all  the  native  thoroughfares  are 
wholly  impassable  except  for  sturdy  oxen,  which 
plow  their  way  through  the  mud  and  sinkholes 
with  deliberation  born  of  long  practice. 

The  man  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale  is  not  to 
blame  for  his  situation.  He  is  the  victim  of  a 
system  that  has  made  it  exceedingly  unwise  for 
him  to  do  anything  other  than  what  he  does. 

Poverty  is  the  only  protection  of  the  people. 
For  nearly  two  centuries  pillage,  plunder,  piracy, 
and  murder  were  the  record  of  the  Isthmus. 
Every  buccaneer  who  sailed  the  Spanish  main 
seems  to  have  made  a  business  of  taking  a  chance 
at  the  Isthmus.  It  was  open  season  for  every 
kind  of  crook  work  that  the  minds  of  men  could 
invent.  Most  of  this  activity  was  confined  to  the 
trade  route  in  the  middle  of  the  Isthmus,  but  the 
influence  and  terror  of  this  bloody  age  extended 
both  ways  as  far  as  the  country  was  inhabited. 
The  common  people  were  exploited,  plundered, 
murdered,  enslaved,  and  beaten  at  every  turn. 

Only  a  fool  would  work  when  to  work  meant 
that  his  head  was  marked  for  immediate  oppres- 
sion. If  he  forgot  himself  and  got  hold  of  any- 
thing of  value,  some  one  was  ready  to  take  it 
away  from  him  without  delay;  and  if  he  objected, 
he  lost  both  his  property  and  his  head. 

The  social  dregs  that  strayed  to  Panama  or 


ECONOMIC  WASTE  117 

stayed  in  Panama  in  those  lurid  days  were  men 
without  character,  conscience,  or  capacity  for  in- 
dustry, other  than  in  their  favorite  occupation  of 
despoiling  some  one  else. 

These  pirates  and  plunderers  are  gone,  but 
they  have  left  their  tracks  and  traces  in  the  civil- 
ization of  the  Isthmus.  The  common  people  to- 
day are  mild  and  submissive ;  no  other  type  could 
survive.  It  is  possible  to  exist  in  dire  poverty 
and  pass  the  time  without 
land  or  property,  and  that 
is  the  only  kind  of  exist- 
ence that  holds  any  prom- 
ise of  peace  to  the  man  at 
the  bottom. 

There  have  been  efforts 
on  the  part  of  the  leaders 
of  Isthmian  life  to  inaugu- 

rate  a  new  era  and  bring   WAYSIDE  SELLERS  OF  FRUIT 
about        improvements. 

These  efforts  have  been  spasmodic  and  usually 
complicated  by  political  considerations.  Large 
appropriations  have  been  made  for  roads,  public 
buildings,  machinery,  schools,  and  mills,  but  while 
the  money  has  been  expended,  it  has  gone  like 
water  in  a  sandy  desert,  and  graft  and  inefficiency 
have  swallowed  up  the  funds  with  little  or  no 
results. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  appropriations  for 
bridges,  public  markets,  or  good  roads  would  in 


118  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


some  way  take  the  place  of  industry  and  thrift 
and  bring  good  times.  Half -finished  markets 
rear  their  ghastly  skeletons  in  town  centers. 
Rusting  road-rollers  stand  idle,  decaying  ma- 
chines lie  neglected,  and  half-finished  public 

works  are  covered  with 
cobwebs.  Nobody  no- 
tices, no  one  cares,  and 
nothing  is  done. 

A  railroad  was  built 
with  the  evident  idea 
that  it  would  bring  pros- 
perity to  a  section  of 
naturally  rich  country, 
but  a  railroad  without 
crops  is  useless,  and 
crops  without  labor  are 
impossible,  and  labor 
without  adequate  re- 
turns is  worth  still  less 
than  it  costs.  The  eco- 
nomic structure  rests  on 
the  man  at  the  bottom, 

and  when  this  human  foundation  is  the  prey  and 
target  of  every  one  above  him  the  result  can  be 
nothing  other  than  general  distress  and  ineffi- 
ciency. 

In  some  sections  of  the  interior,  as  in  the  prov- 
inces of  Cocle  and  Chitre,  meat  cattle  of  good 
quality  are  raised.  Shipping  facilities  to  the 


THE    HOUSE    BESIDE    THE    ROAD 


ECONOMIC  WASTE  119 

Panama  market  are  very  good.  There  is  no 
regular  inspection,  but  the  cattle  are  uniformly 
healthy  and  in  good  condition.  The  cattle-rais- 
ing end  of  the  trade  is  all  right,  but  the  market 
is  a  different  matter.  The  cattle  buyers  in 
Panama  are  organized  into  what  is  known  as  the 
meat  trust,  and  these  buyers  hold  the  sellers  in 
subjection.  Prices  are  kept  down  to  the  lowest 
possible  basis,  and  monopolistic  methods  so  well 
known  in  North  America  are  in  full  swing. 

Individual  holders  of  interior  ranchos  have 
made  earnest  efforts  to  produce  foodstuffs  and 
introduce  definite  reforms  into  the  methods  of 
farming,  but  such  persons  have  usually  served  as 
fearful  examples  to  their  neighbors.  In  an  in- 
dustrial system  in  which  the  one  method  of  the 
man  at  the  top  is  to  keep  his  eyes  open  ?nd  when- 
ever he  finds  anyone  who  has  by  chance  or  indus- 
try accumulated  something,  take  it  away  from 
him — this  does  not  stimulate  long  hours  and 
speeding-up  on  the  part  of  the  men  who  do  the 
work. 

When  the  United  States  took  over  the  Canal 
Zone  and  paid  the  purchase  price  to  the  new  Re- 
public of  Panama,  a  good  appropriation  was 
made  to  the  interior  provinces  for  the  building  of 
a  system  of  highways  as  the  first  step  in  a  gen- 
eral improvement  of  the  country.  Most  of  the 
provinces  have  little  to  show  for  this  expenditure 
of  money.  In  one  province  reports  were  received 


120  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

that  the  money  was  being  handed  out  in  petty 
grafting  operations  and  for  political  purposes 
and  that  no  road  was  being  built  to  speak  of.  An 
American  engineer  was  sent  to  investigate.  He 
reported  the  facts  and  was  later  put  in  charge  of 
the  "work."  He  reorganized  the  entire  construc- 
tion force,  and  at  the  expense  of  less  than  twenty 
thousand  dollars  built  a  road  which  has  stood 
without  repairs  for  a  dozen  years,  and  is  in  good 
condition  to-day  under  heavy  usage.  But  the 
reorganization  pulled  down  on  the  engineer's 
head  the  wrath  of  the  entire  officialism  of  the 
province,  and  finally  the  men  higher  up  in  author- 
ity denounced  the  American  for  upsetting  the 
smooth-working  system  at  their  expense.  He 
had  committed  the  unpardonable  error  of  using 
the  money  to  get  results  and  build  the  road  for 
which  it  was  appropriated. 

This  is  interior  Panama  at  its  worst.  There 
are  Americans  who  have  invested  their  money 
and  their  personal  supervision  in  the  develop- 
ment enterprises  in  Chiriqui,  and  they  are  hope- 
ful of  better  things.  There  are  officials  who  are 
genuinely  anxious  to  see  a  better  age  begin.  And 
the  day  will  come  when  this  fair  land  will  make 
men  rich  by  the  abundance  of  its  products  and  the 
certainty  of  large  returns  upon  development 
work  done  under  favorable  conditions.  But  the 
conditions  do  not  yet  exist  in  any  stable  form. 

All  of  this  is  Panama  at  its  worst,  and  forms 


ECONOMIC  WASTE  121 

but  the  background  of  contrast  for  the  picture  of 
the  fine  possibilities  that  lie  in  the  soil,  and  in  the 
unreleased  resources  of  a  human  stock  that  has 
never  had  a  fair  chance.  Once  separated  from 
hookworm  and  superstition,  given  an  industrial 
education,  and  assured  competent  leadership  and 
certain  returns  for  toil,  and  the  lot  of  the  Pan- 
amanian is  no  more  incurable  than  that  of  any 
other  victims  of  a  bad  system. 


CHAPTER  IX 
PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS 

THE  coat  of  arms  of  the  Republic  of  Panama 
bears  the  inscription,  "The  repudiation  of  war 
and  homage  to  the  arts  which  flourish  in  peace 
and  labor."  Under  the  existing  treaty  with  the 
United  States  the  first  part  of  this  excellent 
motto  is  guaranteed.  Panama  is  a  providential 
Republic  and  presents  some  of  the  finest  possi- 
bilities of  the  American  tropics.  The  educated 
Panamanians  have  not  been  slow  to  proclaim 
these  rich  resources,  but  no  large  advance  has  been 
realized  yet.  The  government  of  Panama  has 
been  friendly  to  promotion  plans  and  develop- 
ment projects,  and  has  undertaken  some  ambi- 
tious enterprises  on  its  own  initiative,  but  the  re- 
sults have  been  on  the  whole  disappointing. 

American  business  men  who  have  lived  in 
Panama  feel  that  no  permanent  success  can  be 
assured  to  such  undertakings  without  the  backing 
of  the  United  States  government.  The  officials 
of  Panama  naturally  do  not  look  with  enthusiasm 
upon  this  idea  and  prefer  to  keep  development 
enterprises  within  their  own  jurisdiction.  And 
serious  effort  has  certainly  been  made  by  the 
Panamanian  government  to  support  some  of  the 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       123 

enterprises  projected  by  native  and  foreign  cap- 
italists. 

The  causes  of  economic  backwardness  and  so- 
cial conservatism  are  not  difficult  to  locate  and 
describe.  From  the  cruel  savagery  of  Pizarro  and 
Balboa  to  the  model  communities  of  the  Canal 
Zone  is  a  far  step.  In  the  past  seventy-five  years 
the  city  of  Panama  has  passed  through  a  thou- 


WIRELESS    AT    DARIEN 


sand  years  of  social  evolution,  and  in  five  years 
after  Panama  became  an  independent  and  sov- 
ereign nation  the  city  was  transformed,  the  gov- 
ernment reorganized,  and  something  like  twen- 
tieth-century conditions  replaced  the  filth  and 
disease  and  squalor  of  the  old  days. 

The  prowler  in  social  history  will  find  plenty 
of  material  here.  By  all  the  precedents  of  pro- 
gress Panama  should  have  been  prosperous  cen- 
turies ago.  While  other  cities  of  coming  metro- 
politan centers  were  yet  barren  wastes  and  sleep- 


124  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

ing  wildernesses  Panama  was  on  the  highway  of 
the  world.  When  New  York  and  San  Francisco 
and  Chicago  were  inhabited  by  birds  and  squir- 
rels Panama  was  known  everywhere.  Panama 
had  a  century  the  start  of  all  North  America  and 
was  the  pawn  of  kings  and  the  gateway  of  empire 
before  the  Pilgrims  landed  in  New  England.  If 
there  be  any  advantage  in  an  early  start,  Panama 
should  have  led  us  all  in  the  race  for  a  com- 
manding position  in  the  New  World. 

There  is  much  in  location.  A  single  foot  on 
Broadway  is  worth  more  than  a  farm  in  the  des- 
ert. Great  cities  have  great  positions  on  the  map, 
and  Panama  began  with  a  situation  to  which  the 
world  simply  had  to  come.  A  dozen  different 
solutions  of  the  transportation  problem  presented 
by  the  Isthmian  power  and  navigation  were  pro- 
posed, but  it  always  came  back  to  Panama.  Here 
is  the  narrowest  part  of  the  connecting  link  of  the 
continents,  and  here  is  the  lowest  point  in  the  con- 
tinental backbone.  Without  lifting  her  hand  or 
voice,  Panama  had  but  to  dream  and  wait  till  the 
world  should  come  and  pour  into  her  lap  the  com- 
merce and  progress  of  the  modern  age.  To-day 
Panama  is  on  the  direct  line  of  travel  between  al- 
most any  two  great  cities  at  opposite  ends  of  the 
earth.  Melbourne  and  London,  New  York  and 
Buenos  Ayres,  Port  au  Spain  and  Honolulu- 
draw  the  lines,  and  they  all  pass  through  Panama. 

It  is  an  accepted  axiom  of  unthinking  people 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       125 

that  gold  and  prosperity  are  synonymous.  If 
this  were  true,  Panama  should  be  the  most  pros- 
perous and  progressive  of  all  cities  of  the  earth 
to-day.  More  gold  has  been  carried  through  her 
streets,  and  stored  in  her  warehouses,  and  handled 
by  her  people,  than  in  any  other  city  of  the 
Americas.  The  Peru  of  the  Conquest  was  lined 
and  lacquered  with  gold.  The  palaces  of  the 
Incas  and  the  Temples  of  the  Sun  were  plastered 
and  burnished  with  gold;  and  for  a  century  this 
gold  was  loaded  into  European  ships,  taken  to 
Panama  and  packed  across  the  Isthmus  and  then 
reshipped  to  Europe  to  fill  the  coffers  of  profli- 
gate kings  and  bolster  up  the  fortunes  of  fallen 
states.  All  of  it  came  through  Panama;  and  if 
much  of  it  did  not  remain  there,  it  was  not  due  to 
conscientious  scruples  on  the  part  qf  the  Pan- 
amanians. If  a  stream  of  gold  could  bring  prog- 
ress, Panama  should  have  led  the  world  for 
three  hundred  years. 

Probably  the  modern  Republic  of  Panama  is 
one  of  the  very  few  endowed  governments  in  the 
world.  The  purchase  price  of  the  Canal  Zone, 
invested  in  New  York  real  estate,  yields  an  an- 
nual revenue  which  forms  a  part  of  the  govern- 
ment budget.  The  annual  payment  of  $250,000 
by  the  Canal  Zone  also  helps.  Since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  French  Canal  enterprise  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  monthly  payrolls  of  the  Canal 
builders  has  found  its  way  into  the  till  of  the 


126  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


merchants  in  Colon  and  Panama,  and  these 
terminal  cities  have  largely  lived  on  the  Canal 
Zone  trade.  Certainly,  Panama  has  even  to-day 
some  peculiar  financial  advantages — and  if  these 
could  bring  prosperity,  Panama  should  be  pros- 
perous. 

When  the  California 
gold  rush  began  in  1848 
Panama  awoke  from 
her  century  and  a  half 
of  slumber  and  trouble 
began  afresh.  Again 
there  was  gold  on  the 
Isthmus,  and  again 
there  was  crime.  Hun- 
dreds of  ships  dis- 
charged their  cargoes 
and  passengers  on  one 
side  of  the  Isthmus, 
and  the  trip  across  was 
one  not  to  be  forgotten. 
Now  that  the  world 
has  once  more  had  to 
fight  out  the  old  battle 

of  free  institutions,  it  is  worth  while  to  remember 
that  the  oldest  independent  nation  of  the  modern 
world  is  Panama ;  and  that  the  first  of  the  Span- 
ish colonies  to  achieve  freedom  from  the  misgov- 
ernment  of  the  old  country  was  this  same  little 
nation  on  the  Isthmus.  Tired  of  the  kind  of 


FARM   GRIST   MILL,   COSTA  RICA 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       127 

supervision  which  she  had  been  undergoing  from 
Europe,  in  1826  Panama  revolted,  set  up  polit- 
ical housekeeping  for  herself,  until  she  was  later 
merged  with  the  free  New  Granada — the  modern 
Colombia. 

If  political  independence  has  anything  to  do 
with  advancement,  then  Panama  should  be  very 
advanced  indeed,  for  she  led  all  her  neighbors  in 
achieving  national  separateness.  The  indepen- 
dence movement  that  swept  over  the  western 
world  a  century  ago  affected  Panama  pro- 
foundly, and  the  microbe  of  political  freedom 
soon  produced  a  well-developed  case  of  revolu- 
tion— and  the  revolution  was  a  success.  Four 
score  years  afterward  Panama  again  established 
her  independence  without  the  shedding  of  a  drop 
of  blood.  If  a  spirit  of  independence  can  make  a 
people  prosperous,  then  Panama  and  prosperity 
should  mean  the  same  thing. 

Panama  has  some  peculiar  political  advantages 
to-day.  Where  other  nations  maintain  their 
political  sovereignty  and  internal  peace  at  the 
cost  of  huge  sums  of  money  and  by  means  of 
armies  and  battleships,  Panama  is  spared  this 
enormous  drain  upon  her  resources  and  men  and 
money,  and  finds  her  political  independence  guar- 
anteed against  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Like- 
wise she  is  sure  of  internal  peace  and  is  the  only 
really  war-tight,  revolution-proof  country  in 
Latin- America.  By  the  treaty  entered  into  be- 


128  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

tween  Panama  and  the  United  States,  in  return 
for  the  Canal  Zone  and  other  concessions,  the 
United  States  guarantees  the  independence  of 
Panama  and  agrees  to  step  in  at  any  time  when 
it  may  be  necessary  and  maintain  order  through- 
out the  Isthmus.  The  Panamanians  are  not  en- 
thusiastic over  this  situation,  and  some  of  the 
politicos  inwardly  resent  very  bitterly  an  arrange- 
ment which  makes  impossible  their  chosen  pro- 
fession of  agitators  and  revolutionary  leaders. 

There  are  people  who  tell  us  that  the  basis  of 
national  progress  is  economic  and  commercial. 
Given  a  land  with  all  large  resources,  we  shall  per- 
force have  a  progressive  people.  Measured  by 
this  standard,  Panama  should  lead  all  the  rest. 
Her  thirteen  hundred  miles  of  coast  bound  a 
narrow  empire,  but  an  empire  of  wonderful  pos- 
sibilities. Her  inexhaustible  soil,  her  frequent 
rivers,  her  rich  jungles,  her  broad  savanas,  her 
high  mountains  and  dense  forests,  her  mines 
and  climate  and  rainfall,  and  a  world  market 
right  at  her  doors — all  that  nature  could  do  to 
lay  the  foundations  of  material  wealth  seems  to 
have  been  done  here. 

If  so-called  modern  science  and  engineering 
skill  can  bring  prosperity,  then  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  includes  the  site  of  the  world's  last 
achievement  in  engineering,  sanitation,  and  or- 
ganized efficiency.  Health  conditions  on  the 
Canal  Zone  are  better  than  in  many  cities  of  the 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       129 


United  States.    General  Gorgas  said  that  there 

were  three  causes  for  which  the  Americans  left 

Panama  in  the  old  days:  yellow  fever,  malaria, 

and  cold  feet,  and  that  of 

the  three  the  last  caused 

more  desertions  than  the 

other  two  combined.     It 

is  worth  noting  that  the 

first  two  mentioned  have 

now     vanished     entirely, 

and  it  but  remains  to  find 

a    preventive    for    frigid 

pedal  extremities  to  make 

the  tropics  a  white  man's 

land. 

Panama  and  Colon  to- 
day are  clean  and  health-  fe 

'Jr 

ful.  Even  the  tropical  \* 
buzzard  that  hovers  over 
every  town  and  crossroad 
in  this  mid- America 
world  has  disappeared 
from  these  cities — starved 
to  death.  The  American 
Board  of  Health  looks 

after  the  garbage  cans  and  backyards  and  drains, 
and  woe  be  unto  the  unhappy  mosquito  that  in- 
advertently wanders  into  this  forbidden  territory. 
.The  entire  country  is  now  free  from  yellow  fever, 
and  while  there  is  some  malaria  in  the  lowlands 


HAPPY  KINDERGARTNERS, 
PANAMA 


130  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

during  the  wet  season,  health  conditions  are  far 
better  than  might  be  supposed. 

The  question  of  climate  raises  visions  of  burn- 
ing days  and  sleepless  nights.  To  people  who 
have  never  lived  in  the  tropics  any  lurid  tale  is 
plausible.  But  these  tales  of  torment  do  not  come 
from  dwellers  in  the  tropics,  but  from  overheated 
imaginations  of  writers  of  fiction  who  find  the 
tropics  a  rich  field,  because  most  of  their  readers 
know  nothing  of  the  subject.  There  are  more 
comfortable  days  in  Panama,  per  year,  than  in 
New  York.  There  is  rarely  a  night  when  one 
cannot  sleep  in  comfort.  If  there  were  nothing 
the  matter  but  the  climate,  there  would  be  no 
reason  for  shunning  Panama. 

By  all  the  rules  of  the  great  game  of  getting 
rich,  Panama  ought  to  be  both  prosperous  and 
progressive.  Seemingly  every  chance  has  come 
her  way. 

Yet  the  visitor  does  not  find  Panama  as  a 
whole  either  rich  or  energetic.  The  terminal 
cities,  Panama  and  Colon,  have  lived  pretty  well 
off  the  proceeds  of  the  Canal  Zone,  but  the  great 
interior  country  is  sparsely  inhabited  by  people 
who  are  neither  prosperous  nor  progressive. 
Poverty,  indolence,  and  dirt  abound  throughout 
the  provinces.  Education  is  attempted,  and  the 
present  system,  when  perfected,  will  afford  fairly 
good  rudimentary  training,  but  as  now  conducted 
it  is  a  promise  as  well  as  a  performance.  With  a 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       131 


r'/ 


high  illiteracy  the  people  of  Panama  cannot  be 
said  to  live  on  a  lofty  intellectual  plane.  Not  one 
man  in  a  thousand  makes  the  slightest  attempt  to 
improve  the  country,  or  takes  the  least  interest  in 
what  the  world  is  doing. 

In  the  capital  city  are  edu- 
cated and  refined  men,  both 
prosperous  and  progressive. 
Their  activities  are  divided 
among  business  enterprises, 
professional  callings,  and  po- 
litical activity.  Very  few  of 
these  men  are  interested  in 
development  projects  to  any 
extent.  Agriculture  as  a 
basis  of  national  wealth  has 
little  place  in  their  thinking, 
unless  somebody  else  can  be 
induced  to  attend  to  the  agri- 
culture while  they  themselves 
take  care  of  the  wealth. 
Working  on  a  farm  is  all 
right  for  ignorantes  and 
peons,  but  has  no  interest  for 
a  gentleman.  The  develop- 
ment of  natural  resources  is  not  interesting  unless 
it  affords  a  percentage  of  some  sort,  to  be  earned 
without  effort.  The  unfortunate  fact  is  that 
such  modern  conditions  as  exist  in  Panama  to- 
day have  largely  been  brought  to  her  ready-made, 


YOUNG    COSTA   RICA   IS 
ENTERPRISING 


132  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

which  may  be  why  she  does  not  take  more  inter- 
est in  them. 

The  question  of  morals  and  marriage  laws  is 
one  which  had  better  be  let  alone  unless  the 
prowler  is  prepared  to  find  some  very  unpleasant 
things.  All  children  are  baptized,  and,  as  before 
explained,  the  baptisms  are  registered  and  classi- 
fied either  as  "Legitimo"  or  "Natural"— the 
latter,  of  course,  being  illegitimate.  Only  thirty 
per  cent  of  the  births  of  the  Republic  as  a  whole, 
are  born  of  married  parents.  The  reasons  for  this 
are  not  so  simple  as  may  at  first  appear.  Panama 
has  to-day  a  civil  marriage  law,  but  unless  a  man 
has  abundant  leisure,  endless  patience,  and  can 
afford  to  hire  a  lawyer  or  two,  he  had  better  be 
married  somewhere  else.  Evidently,  influences 
were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  framers  of  the  civil 
marriage  law  which  induced  them  to  overload  it 
with  requirements  that  make  it  exceedingly  un- 
popular. No  voice  of  protest  is  raised  against 
this  scandalous  moral  situation  on  the  part  of  the 
priests  of  the  established  church,  who  merely 
shrug  their  shoulders  and  shake  their  heads  and 
say,  "What  can  you  do  about  it?"  Certainly, 
they  themselves  do  nothing  at  all  except  to  ignore 
the  situation. 

There  have  been  physical  factors  that  have 
militated  against  the  progress  of  Panama. 
While  the  climate  is  comfortable,  most  of  the 
time  it  lacks  stimulus.  There  is  no  "kick"  in  it. 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       133 

Without  occasional  respites  in  a  higher  altitude 
and  cooler  atmosphere,  the  man  from  the  north 
loses  his  driving  power  and  his  wife  sometimes 
gets  a  case  of  nerves.  Four  hundred  years  of  it 
will  take  the  energy  out  of  any  man;  and  many 
of  the  present  inhabitants  of  interior  Panama  ap- 
pear to  have  lived  here  for  about  that  length  of 
time.  For  the  development  of  high  human  effi- 


WOODEN    SUGAR    MILL   AND    ITS    MAKER 

ciency  it  is  required  in  a  climate  that  it  be  some- 
thing more  than  comfortable.  It  should  at  times 
be  uncomfortable,  and  occasionally  exasperating. 
The  workers  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation 
have  found  eighty  per  cent  of  the  people  of  the 
provinces  afflicted  with  hookworm.  Highly  com- 
mendable is  the  work  done  by  these  representa- 
tives of  the  Institute,  but  so  long  as  the  common 
people  know  nothing  of  sanitation,  clean  and 


134  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

pure  food,  present  conditions  will  continue.  And 
physical  "hookworm"  is  accompanied  by  a  similar 
mental  condition.  There  is  a  moral  hookworm 
throughout  the  country,  and  life  slumps  down  to 
a  hand-to-mouth  drag  from  one  day  to  the  next. 
Both  physical  and  mental  conditions  are  better  in 
the  cities,  of  course,  but  there  is  still  room  for  a 
moral  prophylactic. 

There  are  social  forces  which  have  largely  ac- 
counted for  this  result.  Possibly  no  place  in  the 
world  shows  more  mixed  blood  than  Panama. 
Shades  and  colors  and  tints  and  tones  there  are, 
and  blends  indescribable  and  also  impossible  to 
analyze  or  trace.  The  artists  tell  us  that  the  com- 
bination of  the  primary  colors  with  white  results 
in  a  tint,  while  blending  a  primary  color  with 
black  gives  a  shade.  Well,  most  of  these  tones 
are  shades,  for  the  same  scientific  reason  as  that 
mentioned  by  the  artist.  From  the  Caribbean 
world  has  come  its  contribution  of  the  West  In- 
dian Negroes,  with  consequent  shady  result. 

The  social  results  of  this  mixture  are  various 
and  distressing,  but  well  understood  by  anyone 
who  has  lived  in  the  interior  of  Panama.  Even 
the  cities  are  affected  in  the  same  way.  Social 
standing,  political  availability,  and  personal  in- 
fluence are  largely  determined  by  the  degree  of 
whiteness — or  darkness — that  prevails  in  the 
skin.  And  the  general  desire  of  the  ignorant  and 
unmoral  native  of  the  interior  to  "lighten  up  the 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       135 

breed"  has  led  to  a  moral  situation  that  bodes  no 
good  for  the  away-from-home  white  man  who 
may  be  living  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  in  the 
up-country  provinces. 

Any  aggressive  North  American,  especially  if 
he  be  from  the  West,  looks  upon  the  splendid 
areas  of  land,  the  fine  rivers,  the  dense  forests, 
and  the  other  untouched  resources  of  this  rich 
country  with  amazement,  and  begins  to  plan  de- 
velopment projects  and  dream  of  organizing  syn- 
dicates, but  the  native  loses  no  sleep  over  such 
vain  imaginings.  If  he  dreams  at  all,  it  is  of  his 
food  if  he  be  poor,  and  of  politics  if  he  be  rich. 
Development  in  the  North  American  sense  is  a 
disgrace,  and  no  job  for  a  gentleman.  The 
smooth  savanas  may  lie  there  untouched  till  king- 
dom come,  for  all  he  cares.  The  only  interest  in 
life  is  political  manipulation.  Law  and  politics 
are  the  two  occupations  most  esteemed,  and  Pan- 
ama is  not  different  from  other  countries  in  the 
frequent  association  of  these  two  professions. 

Whence  comes  this  emphasis  on  political  activ- 
ity, to  the  neglect  of  commerce  and  agriculture? 
It  comes  from  Europe  with  the  early  inheritance 
of  the  first  settlements  and  rulers  of  this  Latin 
world.  For  them  any  form  of  physical  work  was 
dire  disgrace.  "These  two  hands  have  never  done 
an  hour's  work"  was  a  boast  and  badge  of  qual- 
ity. The  climate  of  the  tropics  made  this  philos- 
ophy of  life  easy  to  accept  and  follow,  and  what 


136  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

the  leaders  lived  the  followers  did  faithfully  keep 
and  perform.  Of  course  somebody  had  to  do  a 
little  work  and  raise  a  few  vegetables  and  cattle, 
but  the  game  was  to  find  the  unfortunate  worker 
and  then  take  away  from  him  the  product  of  his 
toil.  Thus  the  getter  lived  without  work  and 
taught  the  loser  the  uselessness  of  further  exer- 
cise. 

By  way  of  clearness  these  conditions  are  here 
described  in  their  worst  and  final  form.  Bad  as 
they  are,  they  are  not  the  whole  truth.  It  takes 
more  than  mixed  blood  and  hookworm  and  snob- 
bishness to  account  for  the  present  social  condi- 
tions of  Central  America. 

If  moral  conditions  in  Panama  to-day  are  not 
ideal,  it  is  not  due  to  any  absence  of  church  or 
lack  of  religion.  With  the  explorers  and  con- 
querors of  the  sixteenth  century  came  the  mis- 
sionaries and  priests.  Crosses  were  set  up,  bells 
were  hung,  masses  were  said,  and  everywhere  the 
elaborate  ritual  of  the  Spanish  church  was  main- 
tained. Whole  villages  were  "converted,"  bap- 
tized, and  labeled  as  good  Catholics  in  a  day's 
time.  Massive  and  beautiful  churches  were  soon 
built  in  centers  of  population,  and  every  village 
has  its  church,  often  representing  nearly  as  much 
value  as  half  of  the  houses  of  the  town  combined. 

From  the  beginning  until  the  coming  of  the 
North  American  to  finish  the  Canal  the  Roman 
Church  has  had  exclusive  and  uninterrupted  oc- 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       137 

cupation  of  this  entire  territory.  There  has  been 
no  competition,  and  there  have  been  no  interfer- 
ences with  her  moral  and  spiritual  leadership. 

But  in  spite  of  this  situation,  or  perhaps  be- 
cause of  it,  moral  conditions  are  what  they  are  in 
Panama  to-day.  Out  of  the  closed  Bible  and  the 
bound  consciences  of  this  system  have  come  social 
incapacity  and  intellectual  helplessness  in  all  the 
fields  of  human  activity.  Most  of  Latin- America 


PUBLIC    MARKET,    DAVID 


has  not  yet  learned  that  the  intellect,  like  the 
nation,  cannot  exist  half  slave  and  half  free. 
Only  free  consciences  can  guide  free  citizens  to 
the  founding  of  free  political  institutions  and 
social  activities.  A  successful  democracy  can 
never  be  reared  upon  a  foundation  of  superstition 
and  spiritual  despotism.  More  than  all  other 
factors  this  moral  blight  and  spiritual  dry-rot  is 
what  is  the  matter  with  Panama.  The  moral  and 
spiritual  climate  of  a  people  has  more  to  do  with 
the  growth  or  destruction  of  a  spirit  of  progress 


138  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

than  do  thermometers  and  telephones  and  de- 
clarations of  independence.  Until  the  spirit  of  a 
Panamanian  becomes  a  free  spirit  and  he  is  per- 
mitted to  think  and  worship  after  the  dictates  of 
a  free  conscience,  Panama  can  never  become  a 
progressive  nation. 

Highly  favored  among  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
this  little  country  affords  a  strategic  opportunity 
for  the  setting  up  of  a  national  experiment  in 
development  and  progress.  If  this  undertaking 
is  to  succeed,  there  must  be  added  to  the  large 
economic,  social,  and  strategic  resources  of  the 
country  the  element  of  a  free  spirit  and  an  en- 
lightened conscience.  Out  of  these  will  come  a 
sense  of  the  dignity  of  labor,  the  worth-whileness 
of  education,  and  the  development  of  the  now 
dormant  resources  of  this  beautiful  land. 

The  problem  of  progress  in  Panama  is  inevit- 
ably linked  with  that  of  Protestantism.  Work 
was  begun  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  Colon  under  Bishop  William  Taylor,  and  a 
strong  West  Indian  congregation  was  gathered. 
This  was  later  turned  over  to  the  Wesleyan 
Methodists,  who  maintain  considerable  work 
among  the  West  Indians  of  the  Caribbean 
Islands,  With  the  purchase  of  the  Canal  Zone 
by  the  United  States,  the  Methodists  began  to 
plan  for  work  in  Panama  and  eventually  estab- 
lished a  Spanish  church  and  school  at  the  head 
of  Central  Avenue,  opposite  the  national  palace. 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       139 

But  no  serious  effort  was  made  by  this  denomina- 
tion to  meet  and  master  the  problems  that  arose 
from  exclusive  Protestant  occupation  of  the 
Spanish-speaking  section  of  the  field  until  the 
time  of  the  noted  Panama  Congress  in  February, 
1916.  Here  met  representatives  of  the  Protes- 
tant movement  in  all  Latin- America,  and  general 
principles  of  comity  and  cooperation  were  estab- 
lished and  adopted.  Under  this  working  agree- 
ment, the  Spanish  work  in  the  Republic  of  Pan- 
ama was  assigned  to  the  Methodists  as  a  unit  of 
responsibility.  To  this  area  Costa  Rica  was  later 
added.  West  Indian  work  was  not  included  in 
this  survey,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  some  similar 
representative  and  authoritative  body  may  yet 
undertake  to  bring  order  and  comity  out  of  the 
unorganized,  though  friendly,  confusion  of  West 
Indian  denominational  programs  now  existent. 

The  Pan-Denominational  Congress  of  1916 
made  definite  the  responsibility  for  Spanish  work 
in  Panama,  and  the  denomination  now  in  charge 
of  this  field  is  working  on  a  program  somewhat 
adequate  to  the  strategic  importance  of  the  very 
conspicuous  location  beside  the  Canal  Zone. 
When  fully  realized  and  in  operation,  this  pro- 
gram of  work  will  wield  a  wide  influence  in  the 
Spanish- American  world.  A  large  factor  in  this 
new  program  has  been  the  interest  and  enthusi- 
asm of  the  young  people  of  the  California  Con- 
ference Ep worth  League,  who  have  done  much 


140  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

to  make  possible  an  enlargement  of  the  work 
undertaken. 

Too  much  praise  cannot  be  given  to  the  earnest 
and  efficient  missionaries  who  founded  and  have 
maintained  this  mission.  The  Seawall  Church 
has  already  sent  out  its  influences  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  The  standards  and  results  attained  in 
Panama  College,  so  far  as  that  institution  has 
been  developed,  have  exerted  a  strong  influence 
on  the  educational  and  moral  life  of  the  city  and 
of  the  republic.  The  work  in  1919  included  a 
Spanish  base  at  the  Seawall  location,  with  its 
church  and  school,  and  American  congregation, 
a  West  Indian  school  and  church  in  Guachapali, 
a  Spanish  mission  Sunday  school  and  evangelistic 
service  in  the  school  building  kindly  loaned  by  the 
Wesleyans,  a  Spanish  mission  school  and  preach- 
ing service  in  Guachapali,  a  West  Indian  Sun- 
day school  and  service  at  Red  Tank,  and  a 
Chinese  mission  near  the  market.  Present  plans 
for  future  expansion  include,  in  addition  to  the 
work  now  under  way  at  David,  an  adequate  pro- 
gram of  interior  education  and  evangelization,  an 
industrial  and  agricultural  school,  a  strong  insti- 
tution church  in  Panama,  an  institution  of  higher 
education,  and  adequate  work  in  Colon. 

This  mission  shares  with  the  Northern  Baptist 
Convention  and  the  Northern  Presbyterian 
Church  denominational  responsibility  for  most 
of  Central  America.  The  Baptists  have  work  in 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS      141 

Honduras,  Salvador,  and  the  Presbyterians  in 
Guatemala  and  in  Colombia,  further  south.  The 
Methodists  complete  the  chain  by  the  occupation 
of  Panama  and  Costa  Rica,  in  which  latter  re- 
public work  was  begun  in  the  latter  months  of 
1917.  Costa  Rica  presents  an  attractive  field 
with  its  good  climate,  fertile  country,  Spanish- 
speaking  population  of  intelligence,  and  large 
capacity  for  progress.  The  new  mission  met  with 
success  from  the  start  and  promises  rapid  growth. 

The  three  denominations  named  are  working 
together  in  complete  harmony  and  have  devel- 
oped a  unified  program  of  Christian  education 
for  Central  America,  as  the  beginnings  of  further 
coordination  of  effort.  There  is  no  overlapping, 
no  competition,  and,  above  all,  no  overcrowding, 
in  this  promising  but  sparsely  occupied  field. 
The  Protestant  denominational  front  on  this  field 
is  well  unified. 

There  are  several  independent  missions  work- 
ing in  this  field,  some  of  which  do  not  find  it  in 
their  purposes  to  unite  in  any  general  movement, 
and  none  of  which  place  emphasis  on  education. 
Chief  among  these  is  the  Central  America  Mis- 
sion which  maintains  workers  in  all  the  republics 
of  Central  America  who  confine  themselves 
largely  to  evangelistic  effort. 

All  of  the  Central  republics  have  constitutional 
religious  liberty,  and  the  work  of  Protestantism 
is  officially  welcome  everywhere.  Of  petty  perse- 


142  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

cutions  and  ecclesiastical  opposition  there  are 
numerous  examples.  The  spirit  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion still  smolders  beneath  the  surface,  but  the 
new  spirit  of  world-democracy  makes  more  and 
more  grotesque  and  futile  the  intolerance  and 
bigotry  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

Protestantism  in  Latin- America  has  been  in 
the  van  of  every  movement  toward  progress  and 
has  contributed  much  toward  the  foundations  of 
the  new  era.  Without  the  Protestant  movement, 
the  present  state  of  advance  would  be  impossible. 
To-day  Protestantism  is  in  the  anomalous  posi- 
tion of  being  inadequate  in  equipment  and  man- 
power to  meet  the  situation  created  or  to  supply 
the  demands  arising  everywhere  for  adequate  ex- 
pression of  free  institutions.  The  lump  is  large 
and  the  leaven  has  been  small,  but  the  contagion 
.of  liberty  and  the  awakening  of  conscience  de- 
mand an  adequate  equipment  and  program. 

There  is  promise  of  a  new  and  worthy  ap- 
proach in  the  large  purposes  of  the  great  de- 
nominations to  undertake  in  adequate  manner  a 
program  of  world-reconstruction  made  impera- 
tive by  the  close  of  the  great  war.  The  collapse 
of  all  but  moral  and  spiritual  forces  as  a  guar- 
antee of  peace  renders  all  former  alignments 
obsolete  and  forces  the  church  to  new  methods 
and  more  comprehensive  undertakings.  It  is  now 
resolved  to  go  up  and  possess  this  goodly  land 
on  the  mere  borders  of  which  we  have  lingered  for 


PANAMA  AND  PROGRESS       143 

nearly  a  century.  The  coming  generation  will 
$ee  a  reorganization  and  reconstruction  of  the 
Protestant  program  in  Latin- America,  and  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  twentieth  century  this  mighty 
continent  will  have  attained  a  noble  citizenship  in 
the  neighborhood  of  great  races. 


CHAPTER  X 
KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS 

WHATEVER  the  cause  or  results,  the  fact  stands 
that  we  are  not  well  acquainted  with  our  nearest 
national  neighbors.  Like  the  modern  city-dwell- 
er, we  know  least  about  those  who  live  nearest. 
The  North  American  knows  more  about  the  other 
side  of  the  world  than  he  does  about  those  who 
live  on  the  same  continent  with  him.  Neither  the 
North  American  nor  his  southern  neighbor  has 
treated  the  other  fairly. 

Many  of  us  have  not  yet  discovered  that  there 
be  any  Latin- American.  Some  one  lives  south  of 
the  line,  of  course,  but  that  fact  has  made  little 
impression  on  our  minds.  In  our  mental  geog- 
raphy the  American  world  shades  off  into  a  hazy 
and  troubled  region  southward  about  which  we 
have  known  little  and  cared  less.  Our  geograph- 
ical studies  have  helped  us  but  little.  It  is  pos- 
sible to  know  every  physical  fact  about  a  country 
without  knowing  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

It  is  an  anomaly  that  we  know  less  about  our 
Latin  neighbors  than  we  do  of  Europe  or  Asia. 
By  historical  ties  and  constant  reminders  of  com- 
merce and  immigration  we  are  aware  of  our  trans- 
atlantic cousins.  We  have  discovered  the  Far 

144 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS    145 


East  and  have  some  interest  therein,  even  though 
it  be  the  interest  pertaining  to  a  museum  or  a 
menagerie.  But  until  very  recently  neither  im- 
migration, commerce,  nor  curiosity  has  stirred  us 
to  acquaintance  with  our 
continental  neighbors. 

This  ignorance  is  part  of 
our  general  antebellum  atti- 
tude toward  all  the  world 
lying  south  and  east.  In 
fact,  we  never  bothered 
much  with  anybody  outside 
of  the  United  States.  Over 
a  century  we  lived  on,  secure 
in  the  idea  that  we  were  im- 
mune from  European  mili- 
taristic contagion  and  all- 
sufficient  unto  ourselves. 
The  rest  of  the  world  might 
perchance  sink  into  the  sea, 
but  we  would  go  on  bliss- 
fully without  it.  Our  "free 
institutions"  were  self-suffi- 
cient and  all-inclusive.  And 
because  we  were  able  to 
troubles  and  keep  out  of  other  peoples'  quarrels, 
more  or  less,  we  assumed  that  we  were  automat- 
ically superior  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  "of 
course." 

We  of  the  United  States  have  been  likened 


INDIAN  BOY   GOES   TO 
SCHOOL 


compose    our    own 


146  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

unto  a  householder  living  on  a  plot  of  ground 
rich  enough  to  support  his  family.  Resolving  not 
to  become  entangled  in  neighborhood  alliances, 
he  constructed  a  hundred-foot  wall  about  his 
property  and  lived  securely  within.  The  right- 
hand  neighbor  might  be  an  anarchist  and  the  man 
on  the  left  a  cannibal.  If  the  man  in  the  rear 
were  a  polygamist  and  the  dweller  across  the 
street  had  a  habit  of  using  firearms  indiscrimi- 
nately it  mattered  nothing  to  the  householder — so 
long  as  the  wall  held.  But  it  came  to  pass  that 
an  earthquake  destroyed  that  wall,  and  the  said 
exclusive  citizen  suddenly  found  himself  out  on 
the  street  with  his  neighbors.  And  behold,  it 
mattered  much  what  sort  of  neighbors  they  were. 
There  was  nothing  to  do  but  get  acquainted  and 
help  make  the  neighborhood  a  decent  place  in 
which  to  live. 

Since  the  world  war  has  battered  down  the  wall 
with  which  we  sought  to  separate  ourselves  from 
other  nations,  we  have  nothing  left  but  to  recog- 
nize and  accept  our  place  in  the  national  neigh- 
borhood and  do  our  share  to  make  it  decent. 

The  Latin- American  has  been  at  a  disadvan- 
tage in  the  character  of  the  continent  in  which  he 
lives.  South  America  is  a  land  for  promoters,  or- 
ganizers of  industry,  hardy  pioneers  of  produc- 
tion, engineers,  planters,  and  rugged  explorers  of 
commercial  frontiers.  The  poetic  and  artistic 
temperament  of  the  Latin  has  suffered  an  unfair 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS    147 


criticism  because  of  the  ill  adaptation  of  his  tem- 
perament to  his  environment.  Sunny  Italy  and 
picturesque  France  and  vine-clad  Spain  were 
more  to  his  tastes  and  abilities.  That  he  has  done 
as  well  as  he  has  speaks  much  for  his  adaptability 
to  a  situation  better  suited  to  a 
more  executive  type  of  char- 
acter. Give  him  a  chance  in  his 
own  best  environment  and  he 
shows  capacity  of  high  achieve- 
ment. 

Probably  the  two  most  arro- 
gant travelers  have  been  the 
Englishman  and  the  American, 
but  our  British  cousins  have  as- 
sumed their  superiority  with 
silent  contempt,  while  the  newly 
rich  American  globe-trotters 
have  vaunted  their  ignorance 
from  the  piazzas  of  every  tour- 
ist hotel  and  upon  the  steamer 


WASHDAY   IN   COSTA   RICA 


148  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

decks  of  every  sea.  It  is  really  not  strange  that 
we  failed  to  notice  the  very  considerable  and  im- 
portant populations  of  countries  lying  at  our 
doors. 

The  North  Americans,  are  not  travelers.  Few 
of  us  do  go  anywhere,  and  fewer  still  know  how 
to  travel  successfully.  The  poorest  traveler  in 
the  world  is  the  society  tourist  who  goes  about 
trying  to  reproduce  home  conditions  in  a  foreign 
land.  So  far  as  possible  he  escapes  the  life  and 
message  of  the  country  in  which  he  sojourns  and 
returns  with  little  else  but  tales  of  social  func- 
tions, a  la  American,  and  comparative  accounts 
of  expenses  at  tourist  hotels.  From  the  first  day 
out  he  isolates  and  fortifies  himself  against  the 
very  things  that  travel  alone  can  give.  He  brings 
home  a  few  trinkets  made  to  sell,  some  cocksure 
criticisms  of  customs,  people,  and  missionaries, 
and  a  swelled  head.  But  he  has  been  abroad — 
save  the  mark ! 

Travel  is  a  specific  for  provincialism,  but  it 
must  be  real  travel  and  not  imitation  home- 
swagger.  Intelligent  and  sympathetic  travel 
breaks  up  the  hardening  strata  of  thought,  pushes 
back  the  narrowing  horizon,  loosens  the  set  fibers 
of  the  soul,  and  is  the  surest  cure  yet  known  for 
mental  arterial  sclerosis.  The  right  kind  of  travel 
shifts  the  viewpoint,  readjusts  life  forces,  and 
shakes  up  the  provincialism  of  the  man  with  the 
"township  horizon."  And  when  the  disturbed 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS    149 

atoms  of  character  reassemble  it  is  in  a  different 
mode  and  with  a  new  cycle. 

It  is  to  be  said  that  the  South  American  has 
not  taken  much  interest  in  us.  Since  he  has  made 
out  to  get  along  without  us,  he  cannot  be  very 
important.  The  Oriental  has  shown  some  desire 
to  move  into  our  basement,  or  at  least  the  wood- 
shed or  the  washhouse,  and  we  have  discovered 
him.  The  European  has  shown  his  good  taste  by 
coming  over  and  moving  right  in  with  us,  and  in 
time  we  cannot  distinguish  him  from  ourselves. 
But  the  South  American  has  gone  his  way,  and 
in  the  main  has  minded  his  own  affairs,  and  there- 
fore cannot  amount  to  much.  If  he  were  a  social 
problem,  we  would  know  him  better.  If  he  had  a 
penchant  for  the  police  force  or  an  itch  for  office 
among  us,  we  would  cultivate  his  acquaintance, 
and  perhaps  invite  him  to  call. 

During  the  past  two  decades  the  once  despised 
Chinese  have  become  popular  among  us.  Their 
utter  difference  from  ourselves,  their  solid  human 
qualities,  their  marvelous  vitality,  their  commer- 
cial solidarity,  their  response  to  the  stimuli  of  the 
modern  world,  their  astonishing  versatility,  their 
wonderful  national  history — these  and  a  hundred 
other  things  stir  our  imagination,  and  we  have 
rather  suddenly  discovered  that  we  like  the 
Chinese — especially  at  a  distance. 

We  are  well  aware  of  Japan,  not  so  much 
through  any  perceptions  of  our  own  as  through 


150  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Japan's  insistence  upon  attention.  We  can  on 
short  notice  make  out  a  rather  comprehensive  list 
of  Japanese  characteristics,  and,  in  truth,  we  find 
Japan  interesting.  The  marvelous  energy  of  her 
people,  her  high  ambitions,  her  Oriental  view- 
point, her  great  commercial  and  military  suc- 
cesses, her  artistic  setting,  her  marvelous  skill  of 
hand,  and,  not  least,  her  abundant  interest  in  our 
own  affairs — these  and  other  items  make  it  quite 
the  thing  to  be  interested  in  Japan.  But  who 
cares  anything  about  a  lot  of  dirty  peons?  They 
are  not  in  good  form. 

But  this  interest  in  the  Orient  is  more  curiosity 
than  it  is  race  sympathy.  There  is  a  great  gulf 
fixed  between  the  yellow  man  and  the  white,  and 
racially  that  gulf  can  never  be  bridged.  The  oc- 
casional marriages  between  the  East  and  West 
need  no  comment;  they  tell  their  own  story. 
Neither  China  nor  Japan  can  ever  become  Amer- 
ican in  any  racial  sense.  When  Chinese  and  Jap- 
anese come  to  America  for  any  but  educational 
and  temporary  purposes,  they  set  up  Chinatown 
and  little  Japan  wherever  they  go.  American 
character  is  a  most  complicated  composite  of 
many  races,  but  from  Tokyo  to  Bombay  there  is 
no  Oriental  factor  that  will  blend  with  the  mix- 
ture of  races  that  makes  up  America. 

Our  Oriental  interest  is  confined  to  the  races 
that  have  impressed  themselves  upon  our  imagi- 
nation. The  Philippines,  in  spite  of  our  national 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS   151 

relation  to  the  islands,  do  not  seem  to  us  very  real 
nor  very  important.  They  will  soon  be  keeping 
house  for  themselves,  and  then  we  shall  forget 
them  except  as  an  interesting  historical  incident. 
And  as  for  India,  that  is  British,  and  about  all  we 
know  is  that  the  Hindu  wears  a  turban,  main- 
tains a  very  undemocratic  caste,  exists  in  unac- 
countable numbers,  is  subject  to  annoying  and 


RIVERSIDE    PLANTATION 


frequent  famines,  and  on  the  whole  is  a  rather 
helpless  lot,  except  as  some  bearded  fakir  enter- 
tains companies  of  badly  balanced  American  so- 
ciety women  with  hyperbolated  essence  of  sub- 
limated nonsense. 

But  the  Latin- American  is  blood  of  our  blood, 
kin  of  our  kind,  and  lives  on  the  same  continental 
street,  which  is  why  we  are  so  little  interested  in 
him.  He  is  neither  quaint,  curious,  nor  crazy. 
He  is  not  good  for  first-page  headlines  except 


152  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

when  he  breaks  out  in  revolution  or  forgets  our 
Monroe  Doctrine.  There  is  no  fixed  gulf  of  dif- 
ference between  him  and  us,  and  in  the  final  fus- 
ing of  American  character  he  must  contribute  a 
large  part. 

To  ignore  the  Latin- American  is  to  be  con- 
victed of  historical  ignorance.  From  Dante  to 
the  great  South  American  leaders  and  scholars  of 
to-day  the  Latin  races  have  been  neither  sleeping 
nor  idle.  During  the  last  five  hundred  years 
more  than  one  half  of  Western  history  has  been 
made  by  Latin  races.  It  was  a  Latin  who  dis- 
covered America.  Another  first  sailed  around 
the  globe.  Latin  peoples  explored,  conquered, 
and  settled  both  Western  continents,  and  gave  a 
language  which  has  become  the  permanent  speech 
of  two  thirds  of  the  Western  world.  To  call  the 
roll  of  artists,  painters,  sculptors,  poets,  drama- 
tists, novelists,  musicians,  explorers,  missionaries, 
and  scientists  for  the  past  five  centuries  is  to  prove 
that  a  majority  of  the  names  mentioned  in  the 
world's  illustrious  hall  of  fame  are  from  Latin 
races.  To  mention  Cure,  Pasteur,  and  Marconi 
is  to  remind  us  of  the  scientific  progress  of  mod- 
ern Latin  minds,  and  to  speak  of  France  and 
Italy  as  pioneers  in  democracy  is  to  keep  within 
the  facts.  It  was  in  Italy  that  Browning  and 
Tennyson  and  George  Eliot  and  a  host  of  other 
writers  found  inspiration  and  material  to  feed  the 
fires  of  genius. 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS    153 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  modern  degener- 
acy of  the  dominant  religious  system  of  Latin- 
American  countries,  it  is  true  that  the  sixteenth 
century  saw  in  Spain  one  of  the  most  virile  and 
comprehensive  missionary  movements  of  all  his- 
tory. Never  before  nor  since  have  missionary 
efforts  been  projected  on  so  vast  a  scale  or  by 
so  powerful  procedure.  Monks  and  priests  went 
out  and  established  the  cross  and  the  confessional 
through  the  Western  world  and  in  the  islands  of 
the  sea,  and,  whatever  else  we  may  say,  there  can 
be  no  disparagement  of  the  permanency  of  the 
results  of  these  conquests.  The  Latin  world  is 
still  dominantly  Roman  in  its  religious  life,  and 
shows  very  positive  preferences  for  the  religion  of 
the  conquistadores.  To  give  a  language  and  a 
religion  to  two  thirds  of  the  American  conti- 
nents is  not  the  work  of  weaklings  nor  of  degener- 
ates. 

This  Latin  neighbor  of  ours  not  only  lives  on 
the  same  street  but  he  lives  in  a  bigger  and  better 
house  than  ours.  To  the  "lick-all-creation"  type 
of  Fourth-of-July  American  this  is  rank  heresy, 
but  facts  have  little  regard  for  fireworks.  With 
twenty-eight  per  cent  of  the  population  of  the 
Americas,  the  Latin  holds  sixty-five  per  cent  of 
the  territory  and  fully  the  same  proportion  of 
natural  resources.  His  soil,  his  rivers,  his  moun- 
tains, his  harbors,  his  mines  are  as  good  as  ours, 
and  he  has  more  of  them.  In  the  western  hemi- 


154  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


sphere  he  controls  the  longest  rivers,  the  highest 
mountains,  the  largest  area  of 
habitable  land,  the  longest  sea- 
coast,    and    the    entire    inex- 
haustible fertility  of  the  trop- 
ics.    His  untouched  and  un- 
charted natural  resources  are 
beyond     computation.       His 
estate  is  second  to  none  in  the 
entire    world,    and   he    could 
spare  enough  for  the  crowded 
millions     of     India     or     the 
swarming    islands    of    Japan 
and  never  miss  it.    All  of  this 
we    would    have    discovered 
sooner  but  for  the  world  war, 
which  focused  all  attention  on 
the  main  issue  and  postponed 
the  direct  results  of  the  suc- 
cessful completion  of  the 
Panama  Canal.     With  a 
normal  supply  of  shipping, 
the    west    coast    alone    of 
South  America  would  keep 
the  Canal  busy  much  of  the 
time  and  affect  American 
markets  profoundly. 

In  material  achieve- 
ments our  neighbor  has  not  been  idle,  though 
some  of  his  attempts  have  resulted  in  failure  or 


JUNGLE    PRODUCTS 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS    155 

fiasco.  He  has  built  great  and  beautiful  cities,  he 
has  constructed  long  and  difficult  railroads  over 
tortuous  mountain  systems,  he  has  developed 
huge  industries  and  organized  big  commercial 
enterprises.  He  has  produced  a  civilization  in 
keeping  with  his  character,  artistic,  homogeneous, 
progressive,  and  on  a  high  intellectual  plane. 
His  libraries,  theaters,  and  public  buildings  are  a 
credit  to  his  taste  and  skill,  and  his  churches  are 
massive  and  stately  as  the  rock-ribbed  mountains 
that  tie  together  the  whole  system  from  El  Paso 
to  Patagonia. 

We  have  heard  more  or  less  of  a  Pan- Amer- 
icanism, but  we  have  never  taken  it  seriously.  As 
subject  for  diplomatic  papers,  magazine  articles, 
and  after-dinner  oratory  the  all- America  idea  has 
been  a  refuge  of  word-venders.  But  so  long  as 
the  bulk  of  South  American  trade  was  with 
Europe  our  brand  of  fraternal  talk  was  harmless 
—also  helpless ;  and  the  reason  for  our  failure  to 
do  business  with  South  America  has  not  been 
entirely  the  neglect  of  our  shippers.  The  larger 
exports  of  South  America  have  all  been  to 
Europe,  and  with  ships  loaded  both  ways  the 
American  exporter  was  hopelessly  handicapped 
in  his  effort  to  secure  favorable  freight  rates. 
When  American  salesmen  tried  to  compete  with 
German  and  French  and  Spanish  exporters  they 
always  failed  to  secure  freight  rates  that  gave 
them  an  even  chance. 


156  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

For  years  American  manufacturers  ignored  the 
Orient  and  lagged  far  behind  European  dealers 
in  the  same  class  of  goods,  to  their  own  large  loss. 
The  same  neglect  has  produced  the  same  result  in 
South  America.  Germany  pursued  a  very  dif- 
ferent policy.  Without  trumpet  or  flag  Ger- 
many sent  her  agents  to  practically  every  Latin- 
American  center  and  seaport,  and  there  the  unos- 
tentatious German  proceeded  to  control  as  much 
business  as  possible,  and  generally  get  hold  of  the 
situation.  Often  he  took  unto  himself  a  wife  of 
the  country,  but  never  for  one  day  did  he  forget 
that  he  was  a  representative  of  the  Vaterland. 
His  house,  his  furniture,  his  methods,  his  ideas 
were  one  hundred  per  cent  German.  An  Amer- 
ican ship  doctor  went  ashore  from  a  German  liner 
in  a  small  South  American  seaport  and  stumbled 
upon  the  inevitable  German  man  of  business. 
He  was  invited  home  to  dinner  and  shown 
through  the  house  with  much  pride  by  the  half- 
German  children.  One  after  the  other,  furniture, 
books,  pictures,  clothing  even  were  exhibited  and 
with  every  article  was  repeated  the  formula,  "Es 
war  in  Deutschland  gemacht."  It  was  a  great 
game,  and  it  was  working  along  smoothly  until 
things  slipped  in  Europe,  and  now  the  end  no 
man  can  see.  But  there  is  going  to  be  a  great 
chance  for  American  capital  and  enterprise  and 
business  energy  in  the  years  when  German  energy 
will  be  needed  at  home. 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS    157 

In  one  of  the  Central  American  republics  an 
American,  while  present  at  a  social  function,  re- 
marked casually  to  a  friend  that  in  his  opinion 
the  cure  for  the  political  upheavals  of  that  coun- 
try would  be  in  the  polite  but  firm  intervention 
of  the  United  States.  A  German  business  man, 
overhearing  the  remark,  hastily  interposed,  "Not 
at  all,  sir ;  that  is  what  Germany  is  in  this  country 
for."  With  a  concerted  and  well-considered 
policy  of  business  extension  in  South  American 
countries  Germany  deserved  the  commercial  ad- 
vantages that  she  had  gained  in  the  twenty-five 
years  preceding  the  war  period. 

When  questioned  as  to  the  remarkable  success 
of  the  German  commercial  propaganda,  South 
American  leaders  rarely  fail  to  mention  the  fact 
that  the  German  business  man  in  Latin  lands  in- 
variably speak  the  language  of  the  country. 
Catalogues  are  issued  in  Spanish  or  Portuguese, 
as  local  conditions  require.  Measures,  technical 
terms,  and  methods  of  handling  goods  are  all 
adapted  to  local  usage,  and  the  South  American 
merchant  is  considered  and  consulted  in  all  the 
mechanism  of  exchange  and  handling  of  goods. 
Contrasted  with  North  American  ignorance  of 
conditions  and  ignoring  of  language  and  custom, 
it  is  not  strange  that  Europe  has  controlled  the 
trade  of  Latin- America. 

In  view  of  all  that  is  involved  of  national  de- 
velopment, international  entanglements,  commer- 


158  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

cial  expansion,  and  racial  affinity,  it  would  seem 
to  be  about  time  that  we  become  acquainted  with 
our  neighbors,  or,  rather,  in  our  neighborhood. 
If  we  are  going  to  live  on  this  great  American 
highway,  it  may  be  well  to  be  on  good  terms  with 
the  rest  of  the  folks. 

Aside  from  commercial  and  linguistic  consider- 
ations, there  are  four  reasons  for  our  ignorance 
of  the  lands  and  people  south  of  the  United 
States. 

1.  The   American   people   are   not   well   ac- 
quainted with  any  other  people  on  earth.    Geo- 
graphical isolation  has  had  much  to  do  with  this, 
and  racial  self-sufficiency  has  had  still  more  effect 
upon  our  lack-of -thinking  about  our  neighbors. 
Had  South  and  Central  American  countries  been 
pouring  millions  of  immigrants  into  our  cities,  we 
would  know  something  about  them,  but  the  Latin 
has  had  no  need  to  immigrate,  since  he  has  more 
room  in  his  own  house  than  he  could  find  in  ours. 

2.  American  travel  abroad  has  been  practically 
all  to  Europe,  with  an  increasing  number  who 
have  seen  something  of  the  Far  East.    And  it  is 
impossible  to  be  anything  but  densely  ignorant  of 
any  people  whose  faces  we  have  never  seen,  whose 
country  we  have  never  visited,  whose  history  we 
have  ignored,  and  whose  language  we  cannot  un- 
derstand.    No  real  interest  is  possible  without 
knowledge,  and  the  main  trouble  between  the 
American  and  his  neighbors  is  plain  ignorance. 


KNOWING  OUR  NEIGHBORS    159 

3.  The  war  with  Spain  in  1898  resulted  in  much 
indifferent  prejudice  on  our  part  against  every- 
thing Spanish.    Spain  was  not  prepared  for  the 
blow  that  fell  upon  her,  and  perhaps  her  colonial 
system  deserved  the  destruction  that  was  admin- 
istered, but  we  came  out  of  the  war  with  a  more 
or  less  good-natured  contempt  for  anything  and 
everything  that  savored  of  Spain.    We  escaped 
with  little  or  no  spirit  of  hatred  or  lust  of  con- 
quest, but  we  marked  down  the  Latin  world  at 
bargain  prices — and  then  let  Europe  walk  away 
with  the  bargain.    As  a  matter  of  fact,  Spain  has 
little  to  do  with  the  American  situation.    Spain 
herself  in  the  past  fifteen  years  has  made  rapid 
strides  forward,  but  in  the  average  American 
mind  anything  Spanish  cannot  be  very  efficient. 

4.  Our  Monroe  Doctrine  has  begotten  a  certain 
arrogance  of  attitude  toward  all  our  southern 
neighbors.    Our  attention  has  been  called  south- 
ward only  when  revolution  or  anarchy  or  Euro- 
pean interference  has  compelled  us  to  take  a 
hand  for  our  own  ultimate  self -protection.    It  is 
only  when  our  neighbors  have  failed  to  keep  the 
peace  and  have  threatened  to  carry  their  quarrels 
into  our  yard,  or  have  been  in  danger  of  being 
beaten  up  by  European  military  police,  that  we 
have  taken  the  trouble  to  notice  them.  From  this 
situation  it  was  inevitable  that  an  attitude  of  pat- 
ronage should  arise,  and  patronage  is  not  a  basis 
of  national  cooperation  or  mutual  understanding. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  FAMILY  TREE 

WHEN  came  this  Latin- American?  Is  he  a 
mystery,  a  complex,  or  a  racial  conundrum  defy- 
ing analysis  and  baffling  understanding?  So 
many  people  have  said.  Others  have  reported  a 
something  impossible  to  name  or  describe  about 
this  man  from  the  southlands — all  of  which  is 
nonsense.  There  are  few  human  mysteries  when 
once  we  have  the  key.  Any  people  may  be  under- 
stood if  we  know  their  racial  origin,  social  history, 
and  reaction-power.  Such  knowledge  usually 
explains  these  so-called  race  peculiarities. 

As  North  Americans  we  are  ourselves  the  pres- 
ent product  of  social  forces  that  have  driven  us 
for  centuries  past.  With  a  northern  European 
race  origin  we  have  been  mixed  in  many  molds 
and  infused  with  many  tinctures  till  we  emerge 
a  new  blend  of  blood.  This  new  and  vigorous 
stock  shows  a  reaction-power  that  has  made  much 
of  educational,  scientific,  and  material  opportu- 
nities, but,  after  all,  these  traits  themselves  are 
largely  the  result  of  the  social  stimuli  of  the  past 
five  hundred  years.  Had  our  ancestors  in  the 
sixteenth  century  removed  to  Spain,  we  should 
all  now  be  Spanish  dons. 

160 


THE  FAMILY  TREE 


161 


If  we  could  know  the  social,  religious,  intellec- 
tual, domestic,  industrial,  and  political  environ- 
ment of  a  people,  we  could  account  for  ninety  per 
cent  of  race  characteristics.  And  this  social  his- 
tory measures,  not  only  potent  forces  and  com- 
pelling sanctions,  but  itself  in  turn  registers  re- 
active power  and  character  values. 

The  Latin- American  has 
no  cause  to  apologize  nor  ex- 
plain when  we  inquire  into 
his  racial  antecedents.  Out 
of  the  remote  ages  of  antiq- 
uity a  branch  of  the  human 
family  moved  westward, 
and  on  the  Italian  peninsula 
developed  a  civilization  and 
founded  a  city  that  in  time 
dominated  the  world.  The 
lust  of  conquest  and  the  in- 
toxication of  power  de- 
bauched the  rulers  of  Rome,  but  the  rising  Chris- 
tian Church  took  over  the  scepter,  and  for  fifteen 
hundred  years  Rome  dominated  the  civilization  of 
the  world.  Fundamentally,  there  was  no  differ- 
ence between  the  blood  of  southern  and  western 
Europe,  and  but  for  the  corrupt  and  demoraliz- 
ing influence  of  the  papacy  and  its  trailing  blight 
upon  the  human  spirit  Rome  might  still  have 
been  the  dominant  power  of  European  civiliza- 
tion. The  abuses  that  compelled  the  Reformation 


SAN    BLAB   INDIAN    CHIEF 


162  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


also  vitiated  the  Latin  spirit.  The  wakening 
life  of  the  sixteenth  century  shifted  the  center 
westward  but  the  blight  of 
papal  despotism  kept  the 
Latin  races  from  their  full 
share  in  the  developments 
and  democracy  of  the  modern 
age.  And  now  that  the  Teu- 
tonic peoples  of  the  north 
have  become  the  victims  of 
the  most  deadly  despotism 
that  the  world  has  yet  pro- 
duced, it  is  possible  that  the 
center  and  motive  of  progres- 
sive thought  in  continental 
Europe  may  again  swing  to 
the  southern  peoples. 

No    one    can    trace    the 
splendid  march  of  the  Latin 
races  through  the  conquests 
and  explorations  and  discov- 
eries of  the  later  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries  and  then 
read  the  record  of  achieve- 
ments down  to  the  present 
time  and  still  maintain  that 
there   is    anything   decadent 
about  the  Latin  races.     Had  the  Roman  yoke 
been  broken   from  the   Latin  neck   as   it   was 
from  the  Teuton,  we  should  have  had  a  very  dif- 


NO  RACE   SUICIDE  HERE 


THE  FAMILY  TREE  163 

ferent  tale  to  tell,  and  the  dominant  civilization 
of  the  twentieth  century  might  have  been  Latin 
instead  of  Saxon. 

A  closer  examination  of  the  social  factors  that 
have  dominated  the  Latin- American  world  and 
produced  the  present  composite  result  on  the 
western  hemisphere  reveals  three  decisive  factors 
that  have  in  combination  produced  our  neighbors. 

All  Latin- America  reflects  a  European  back- 
ground. Nearly  all  relations  of  life  are  defined  in 
European  terms.  Out  of  the  more  or  less  subcon- 
scious inheritance  and  ideals  of  European  origin 
arise  the  sanctions  of  social  relations.  Ideals  of 
politics,  business,  education,  home  life,  social  cus- 
toms, and  religion  all  come  from  this  fountain  of 
associations.  The  church  in  South  America  is  the 
church  in  southern  Europe.  The  collegio  is  not 
the  North  American  college,  but  the  European 
school  which  grants  a  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree 
at  what  corresponds  to  the  end  of  the  freshman 
year  in  an  American  college.  South  American 
"republics"  have  their  "prime  ministers,"  and 
the  electorate  is  on  the  European  basis.  The 
presidents  of  some  of  these  republics  exercise 
more  arbitrary  power  than  the  king  of  Eng- 
land or  the  entire  executive  of  the  United  States. 
They  are  European  "presidents."  Revolution  is 
not  the  incurable  habit  of  the  "people"  but  the 
profession  of  a  few  adventurers  who  oppress 
and  afflict  the  long-suffering  and  usually  silent 


164  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


populace.  This  is  not  saying  that  revolution 
is  a  characteristic  of  European  political  pro- 
cedure, but  that  the  forms  of  reresentative  gov- 
ernment imposed  upon  the  ideals  of  dictatorship 
and  monarchy  produced  the  curious  mixture  of 
revolutionary  political  progress  known  as  a  South 
or  Central  American  "republic."  South  Amer- 
ican democracy  is  a  hybrid 
product  of  European  ideals 
and  American  forms  of  gov- 
ernment. Naturally  enough, 
it  is  neither  one  thing  nor  the 
other,  and  will  not  be  any- 
thing very  different  until  new 
forces  are  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  political  life  of  the 
Latin  people. 

A  second  factor  in  the 
making  of  the  Latin- Amer- 
ican is  his  isolation  for  three 
hundred  years  from  the  cur- 
rents of  Western  economic 
and  political  life.  Practically  all  our  North 
American  stock  of  ideas  and  social  sanctions 
has  been  developed  since  the  Pilgrims  landed 
in  New  England.  The  great  basic  impulse 
that  sent  men  and  women  westward  in  search 
of  religious  liberty  has  persisted  and  widened 
and  developed  a  homogeneous  system  of  polit- 
ical ideal  that  has  become  the  unquestioned 


JUNGLE    GUIDE 


THE  FAMILY  TREE 


165 


background  of  our  whole  political  system.  From 
free  consciences  have  come  free  institutions,  free 
schools,  free  votes,  and  as  long  as  it  lasted,  free 
land,  unrestricted  economic  opportunity,  and  a 
welcome  to  the  world.  Upon 
this  foundation  have  been 
reared  American  indepen- 
dence, modern  democracy, 
higher  education,  the  femin- 
ist movement,  scientific  ad- 
vance, and  American  Protes- 
tantism. 

Certain  influences  from 
this  stream  have  affected 
Latin-American  life.  The 
nomenclature  of  South 
American  politics  is  that  of 
the  United  States,  and  many 
constitutions  contain  provi- 
sion for  every  modern  prac- 
tice. But  these  model  con- 
stitutions are  like  a  beautiful 
and  costly  piano  imported 
into  a  home  where  no  one 
knows  how  to  use  it.  It  takes 
a  democratic  spirit  to  get  democracy  out  of  a 
democratic  constitution.  The  best  piano  yields 
only  discord,  and  the  most  advanced  constitution 
does  not  prevent  revolution  if  there  be  no  musi- 
cians or  statesmen  to  play  and  administer.  Peo- 


ONE   USE   FOB   A    HEAD 


166  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

pie  living  beside  the  stream  of  democratic  pro- 
gress have  caught  the  names  and  forms  drifting 
on  the  current,  but  only  those  people  have  ad- 
vanced with  the  current  who  have  not  been  tied 
to  the  shore  by  moral  and  intellectual  despotism. 

The  influence  of  geographical  nearness  is  slight 
beside  that  of  historical  background  and  social 
relations.  Mexico  is  much  closer  to  Spain  than  to 
the  United  States.  After  twenty  years  of  suc- 
cessful administration  of  the  Philippines  on  the 
most  colossal  scale  of  national  benevolence  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  nearly  all  the  Filipinos 
who  had  reached  maturity  in  1898  are  still  Span- 
ish at  heart  and  out  of  sympathy  with  American 
ideals  and  administration.  If  the  United  States 
can  hold  the  islands  until  every  person  who  was 
ten  years  old  or  over  in  1898  is  thoroughly  dead 
and  safely  buried,  there  will  be  a  chance  for  some 
form  of  democracy,  but  the  old-time  leaders  will 
retain  so  long  as  they  live  the  ideals  derived  from 
three  hundred  years  of  Spanish  administration. 

If  there  are  in  the  mountains  of  the  South  iso- 
lated neighborhoods  that  have  been  passed  by  in 
the  current  of  modern  American  progress,  and 
are  to-day  practically  ignorant  of  all  that  makes 
up  American  life,  even  though  surrounded  on  all 
sides  by  the  march  of  a  virile  and  restless  race, 
what  must  be  the  results  of  the  isolation  from  this 
stream  of  North  American  development,  of  the 
whole  Latin- American  race,  while  maintaining 


THE  FAMILY  TREE 


167 


close  and  vital  connections  with  European  stand- 
ards and  ideals  ? 

But  Latin  American- 
be 


sm    can    never 


ex- 


plained  merely  by  its 
European  background 
and  its  isolation  from  the 
progress  of  North  Amer- 
ica. The  keynote  to  the 
present  product  in  Latin 
lands  is  to  be  found  in 
that  system  of  religious 
despotism  that  has 
checked  the  free  growth 
of  every  people  whose  life 
it  has  dominated. 

Jesuitism  is  what  is  the 
matter  with  the  civiliza- 
tion southward.  We  have 
had  Romanism  and  Jesu- 
itism in  the  United  States, 
but  people  who  have 
never  seen  any  form  of 
these  forces  except  that 
which  has  developed  in 
the  free  air  of  North 
America  have  much  to 
learn.  Romanism  checked 
and  balanced  by  a  virile  Protestantism  and  a 
democratic  political  life  is  an  altogether  differ- 


BEGGARS    AND    CATHEDRALS 


168  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

ent  institution  from  Romanism  dominant,  degen- 
erate, and  intolerant.  The  latter  becomes  the 
religion  of  the  bound  Bible,  the  chained  spirit, 
and  the  crippled  conscience.  It  is  the  center  of 
spiritual  infection  and  the  microbe  of  moral  weak- 
ness. No  land  has  ever  advanced  under  its  lead- 
ership. Like  a  blight  on  the  human  spirit,  it  has 
cast  its  spell  of  ignorance  and  superstition  over 
the  millions  of  men  and  women  who  have  had  no 
other  ethical  code  or  spiritual  leadership. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  the  rigors  of  New 
England  winters  had  something  to  do  with  the 
sturdy  New  England  conscience.  But  the  Pil- 
grims brought  their  consciences  with  them,  and 
the  climate  came  near  exterminating  the  colony. 
If  the  Pilgrims  had  landed  in  Cuba  and  the 
Spanish  in  Boston,  civilization  might  be  very  dif- 
ferent to-day.  If  rigorous  climates  produce  vig- 
orous men,  how  is  it  that  some  of  the  most  terrible 
of  men  sailed  the  Caribbean  sea  and  devastated 
the  whole  mid- American  world,  while  the  north- 
ern coasts  of  the  Atlantic  never  saw  a  pirate's 
sail  ?  The  tropical  zephyrs  of  the  Bay  of  Panama 
never  softened  the  tempers  or  dispositions  of  the 
bloodthirsty  men  who  came  near  exterminating 
whole  populations  and  left  a  trail  of  bvlood  and 
terror  behind  them.  And  these  same  uncon- 
scionable scoundrels'  used  to  attend  mass  and 
plant  wooden  crosses  wherever  they  went. 

The  effort  to  account  for  South  American  civ- 


THE  FAMILY  TREE 


169 


ilization  by  climate  falls  to  pieces  before  the 
splendid  and  bracing  altitudes  of  the  Andes,  the 
ideal  conditions  of  Argentine,  Uruguay,  and 
Chile,  and  the  delightful  regions  of  the  higher 
elevations  of  Central  America.  There  is  nothing 
inherently  demoralizing  in  the  climate  of  lands 
inhabited  by  the  Latin  peoples  in  America,  but 
there  is  something  distinctly  vitiating  in  the  moral 
miasma  breathed  by  these  peoples  for  three  hun- 
dred years.  If  cold  climates  produced  inflexible 
consciences,  the  Eskimos  ought  to  be  the  most 
conscientious  people  on 
earth.  But  the  moral 
climate  of  Jesuitism  has 
produced  a  uniform  ef- 
fect everywhere  that  it 
has  supplied  the  soil  for 
soul-growth. 


FAB  FROM  THE  MADDING  CROWD 


170  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

It  is  impossible  to  grow  liberty  of  life,  apart 
from  its  natural  soil  and  necessary  nourish- 
ment. If  we  are  to  have  free  institutions,  we 
must  first  have  free  men.  We  cannot  have  a 
stream  of  water  without  a  flowing  fountain,  nor 
ripe  fruit  without  a  living  tree.  Political  liberty 
is  impossible  without  moral  freedom,  and  it  is  idle 
to  expect  independence  of  political  action  with- 
out the  established  right  to  think  for  oneself. 
When  consciences  are  forced  into  fixed  and  pre- 
scribed molds  it  is  useless  to  ask  that  men  turn 
about  and  practice  the  principles  of  a  free  de- 
mocracy. Majority  rule  is  meaningless  where 
the  confessional  dominates  the  consciences  of 
men.  If  we  apply  these  factors  in  the  social 
history  and  life  of  the  Latin- American  to  the 
traits  of  his  development  most  subject  to  criti- 
cism, we  find  much  illumination.  Out  of  all  the 
discussion  three  items  emerge,  each  significant 
and  each  closely  related  to  the  factors  just  men- 
tioned. 

The  Latin  mind  is  given  to  an  idealism  that 
reaches  out  for  large  things  but  often  stops  short 
of  large  actual  realization.  Out  of  this  tendency 
grow  weak  initiative  and  superficial  standards. 
As  evidence  of  this  characteristic  may  be  cited  the 
tendency  in  education  to  stress  the  superficial 
and  showy  features  of  the  curriculum,  leaving  in 
the  background  the  foundations  and  essentials  of 
the  intellectual  life.  Anything  that  makes  a  good 


THE  FAMILY  TREE 


171 


appearance  is  given  place  over  the  less  spectac- 
ular realities.  In  architecture,  a  florid  ornamen- 
tation is  achieved,  even  at  the  expense  of  good 
plaster  and  proper  surface  stone,  later  with  the 
resultant  unsightliness. 

Deductive  processes  of  thought  are  much  in 
evidence.  In  outlining  a  plan  of  provincial  gov- 
ernment, or  a  system  of  national  education,  the 


SEAWALL  CHURCH  AND  SCHOOL,  PANAMA 

paper  plans  will  include  every  needed  feature  of 
a  complete  and  theoretical  system,  without  much 
regard  for  the  local  needs  and  actual  conditions 
under  which  the  full  scheme  is  to  be  realized, 
which  in  all  probability  it  will  never  be.  To  have 
projected  and  announced  a  grand  undertaking  in 
any  department  of  human  life  is  as  important  as 
to  have  accomplished  something.  It  is  the  grand- 
piano  constitution  and  the  one-finger  administra- 
tion. It  is  not  hard  to  find  automobile  under- 
takings and  wheelbarrow  accomplishments. 


172  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Now,  all  this  is  not  cause  for  railing  accusation 
but  for  thoughtful  analysis.  And  the  dominant 
cause  is  not  far  to  seek.  Where  effort  to  trans- 
late ideals  into  realities  is  met  by  a  barrier  of 
official  indifference,  it  is  not  strange  if  men  give 
their  time  to  dreaming  rather  than  actualizing 
their  visions.  Where  belief  and  conduct  are  pre- 
scribed and  commercialism  dominates  the  moral 
lives  of  men,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  initiative  is  crip- 
pled at  its  source.  Where  a  people  is  divested  of 
responsibility  for  the  final  outcome  and  taught  to 
pay  the  price  and  "believe  or  be  damned,"  it  is  a 
rash  spirit  that  will  try  to  do  more  than  dream 
dreams  and  write  books  and  project  Utopias. 
Without  the  incentive  of  encouragement  to  pro- 
duce practical  results,  no  real  efficiency  has  ever 
appeared  among  any  people.  There  are  accusa- 
tions of  moral  duplicity  among  Latin- American 
peoples.  More  serious  and  fundamental  than 
impotent  idealism,  this  defect  registers  itself  in 
perversion  of  public  trust,  in  the  degradation  of 
public  office  to  the  uses  of  private  gain,  in  decep- 
tion, graft,  and  greed.  Promises  are  easy,  but 
performances  are  delayed  until  the  would-be  en- 
terprising citizen  gives  up  in  despair. 

In  regard  to  this  two  things  are  to  be  said.  In 
the  first  place,  our  own  records  as  a  people  will 
not  bear  any  too  close  inspection.  Aside  from 
race  riots  and  labor  disturbances,  our  Civil  War 
furnishes  our  only  revolution,  except  the  one 


THE  FAMILY  TREE 


173 


MANDY    DID   HER 
SHARE 


that  produced  the  original  United  States.  But 
when  it  comes  to  political  prostitution  of  public 
office  and  the  invention  of  grafting  schemes,  large 
and  small,  our  own  history  does  not  give  us  much 
ground  for  boasting.  And  many  a  "revolution" 
has  caused  less  bloodshed  than  a 
North  American  labor  row. 

Further,  so  far  as  there  is  a 
difference  between  the  conduct 
of  the  North  and  South,  the  ex- 
planation is  not  far  to  seek. 
Once  admit  the  validity  of  the 
principle  that  it  is  right  to  do 
wrong  for  a  good  end,  and  a 
whole  stream  of  moral  duplicity 
is  turned  loose  in  public  and  pri- 
vate life.  Jesuitism  will  account 
for  almost  any  moral  lapse  in  a 
land  where  all  thinking  has  come 
under  the  spell  of  a  creed  in 
which  the  end  justifies  the  means. 

Let  this  principle  be  ever  so 
carefully  guarded  and  pro- 
scribed, so  long  as  human  nature  remains  what 
it  is,  where  personal  interests  are  at  stake  the  in- 
dividual is  going  to  be  his  own  final  judge  of  the 
value  of  the  end  for  which  the  means  are  devised. 
And  on  the  basis  of  every  man  adapting  means 
to  his  own  ends  we  have  moral  chaos. 

Much  has  been  said  of  the  personal  immorality 


THE  CANAL  DIGGER 


174  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

of  many  people  of  these  southern  lands.  That 
the  Latin- American  is  in  any  whit  behind  his 
northern  neighbor  in  the  integrity  of  his  personal 
and  domestic  life  remains  to  be  proven.  That  his 
deflections  from  the  straight  and  narrow  path  are 
much  less  concealed  and  by  him  are  regarded  as 
of  small  account  is  to  be  conceded.  Here,  again, 
the  cause  is  not  far  to  seek.  With  a  sacerdotal 
example  loose  and  irresponsible,  it  would  be 
strange  indeed  if  the  men  of  South  America 
showed  a  higher  personal  chastity  than  their  spir- 
itual leaders  and  moral  guides. 

The  third  accusation  brought  against  our 
neighbors  is  that  of  political  undemocracy.  Gov- 
ernment by  revolution  is  said  to  be  the  rule,  and 
an  election  in  which  the  "outs"  win  a  victory  over 
the  "ins"  is  practically  unknown.  Victorious  ma- 
jorities are  governed  in  size  only  by  the  discretion 
of  the  dominant  power,  and  the  Latin  mind  seems 
a  stranger  to  the  fundamental  principle  of  ac- 
cepting a  majority  decision  as  binding  until  the 
next  election. 

To  accept  gracefully  a  majority  decision 
against  himself  or  his  party  is  an  art  slowly  ac- 
quired by  any  politician.  On  the  playgrounds  we 
see  this  trait;  in  amateur  clubs  and  literary  so- 
cieties we  find  it;  in  the  arena  of  political  strife  it 
does  its  worst  and  results  in  a  state  of  affairs  in 
which  revolution  becomes  the  general  substitute 
for  elections. 


THE  FAMILY  TREE 


175 


I  stood  one  day  on  the  campus  of  a  Christian 
college  in  a  Latin  republic.  The  young  men  were 
playing  baseball,  and  they  were  playing  it  well. 
I  discovered  that  baseball  was  a  regular  part  of 
their  curriculum,  that  they 
were  required  to  play  so 
many  games  per  week,  and 
that  they  received  credit  for 
the  games,  provided  they 
were  played  according  to 
rules.  When  I  inquired  as  to 
the  reason  for  this  I  was  in- 
formed by  the  efficient  di- 
rector of  the  school  that  base- 
ball was  in  his  opinion  one  of 
the  most  important  subjects 
in  the  course.  "There  are 
two  things  that  we  can  teach 
through  baseball  better  than 
any  other  way.  One  is  team 
work — a  fellow  can't  play  the 
game  alone;  and  the  other  is 
the  art  of  accepting  defeat 
gracefully.  Half  of  the  boys 
must  be  defeated  every  day, 
which  is  an  invaluable  drill  for  them." 

Even  as  we  discussed  the  matter,  a  tall  fellow 
got  into  a  dispute  with  the  umpire,  and  after  a 
dramatic  flourish  swung  his  arms  in  the  air  and 
shouted,"No  juego  mas"  ("I  will  play  no  more") . 


THE    TOWN    PUMP,    IN- 
TERIOR VILLAGE 


176  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

"There — do  you  hear  that?"  remarked  the  di- 
rector. "That  is  what  we  are  trying  to  cure." 

As  far  as  my  observation  has  gone,  nobody  ex- 
cept the  educational  missionary  is  trying  very 
hard  to  cure  this  most  unfortunate  trait  in  an 
otherwise  very  fine  character. 

Here,  again,  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace  this 
stream  to  its  sources.  We  understand  much 


WAYSIDE    CEMETERY    IN    THE   JUNGLE 


better  since  1914  whence  came  this  political  pe- 
culiarity. The  ideals  of  European  politics  have 
been  transferred  across  the  Atlantic  and  their 
fruits  on  foreign  soil  have  not  been  tempered  by 
the  vigor  of  free  institutions  grown  strong  in  the 
processes  of  centuries.  If  Central- American  re- 
publics are  only  constitutional  monarchies  in 
which  the  monarch  governs  the  constitution,  there 
is  very  good  reason  for  the  anomaly.  If  it  is  true 
that  there  is  not  a  single  republic  on  American 


THE  FAMILY  TREE  177 

soil  south  of  "the  line,"  then  it  is  to  be  said  that 
there  never  can  be  such  a  republic  until  Latin- 
America  ceases  to  think  in  terms  of  European 
history  and  Jesuitism  is  broken  from  its  hold  on 
the  moral  consciousness  of  the  men  who  make  and 
unmake  republics  in  the  Latin  world.  Success- 
ful republics  have  been  developed  in  that  turbu- 
lent but  onmoving  stream  of  Western  and  mod- 
ern ideals  that  has  found  its  most  complete  ex- 
pression in  the  United  States,  but  which  has  also 
tinctured  the  thinking  and  influenced  the  political 
processes  of  practically  every  country  on  earth 
except  Prussia.  We  ourselves  are  not  perfect 
yet,  and  it  behooves  us  to  withhold  the  stones 
from  our  neighbors  until  we  can  show  a  clean 
record.  We  will  have  some  distance  to  go  before 
democracy  is  a  finished  product,  and  it  will  be  a 
good  plan  to  take  the  neighbors  along  with  us. 


CHAPTER  XII 
LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART 

MUCH  misunderstanding  has  been  due  to 
faulty  methods  of  approach  to  our  southern 
neighbor.  Political  diplomacy,  commercial  com- 
petition, and  military  displays  will  never  get  to 
the  core  of  this  international  apple.  The  Latin- 
American  is  a  man  of  heart,  and  until  we  recog- 
nize this  fact  we  shall  fail  to  understand  him. 
Sympathy  and  courtesy  will  avail  more  than 
battleships  and  boycotts.  This  man  is  a  born 
diplomat  and  has  high  intellectual  development, 
but  the  deep  and  dominant  motives  of  his  life  are 
his  friendships  and  affections. 

If  we  know  the  ruling  motives  of  men  and 
races,  we  may  avoid  nearly  all  the  misunderstand- 
ings and  incriminating  accusations  that  arise 
when  we  occupy  different  points  of  view,  but 
matters  look  very  different  when  we  get  at  them 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  other  man. 

Seeming  contradictions  dissolve  and  weak- 
nesses appear  as  unsuccessful  aspirations.  Our 
complaints  of  low  initiative  become  more  reserved 
when  we  remember  that  spiritual  slavery  is  a  cer- 
tain antidote  for  the  pioneering  spirit.  The  pres- 
ence of  a  high  though  fruitless  idealism  amid 

178 


LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART      179 

insurmountable  difficulties  attests  a  virile  and 
buoyant  spirit,  captive  and  caged.  Where  toil 
has  been  treated  with  contempt  for  ages  nothing 
short  of  economic  helplessness  can  follow. 

As  for  financial  faithlessness,  who  shall  throw 
the  first  stone?  If  once  we  begin  to  justify  the 
means  by  the  end,  commercial  life  is  going  to 
suffer.  If  we  begin  to  complain  about  the  inse- 
curity of  political  institutions,  we  need  to  remem- 
ber that  democracy  is  one  of  the  first  and  finest 
fruits  of  a  free  mind  and  heart.  Ajid  we  have  not 
yet  ourselves  arrived  sufficiently  to  do  any  boast- 
ing. 

To  know  our  Latin-Americans  as  personal 
friends  is  to  attain  a  new  viewpoint  on  the  whole 
Pan-American  problem.  We  may  not  blind  our 
eyes  to  their  defects  more  than  to  our  own — there 
are  plenty  of  both ;  but  understanding  brings  ex- 
planation of  many  things,  and  if  we  know  all  and 
understand  fully,  we  may  come  to  a  different  ver- 
dict. The  southern  man  far  surpasses  us  in  cer- 
tain traits  of  which  we  have  taken  small  account 
and  in  which  we  are  racially  deficient.  When 
given  free  opportunity,  satisfactory  response  ap- 
pears to  the  stimuli  of  democracy  and  initiative. 

To  know  personally  the  Spanish- American  is 
to  become  aware  of  his  keen  intuitions,  his  high 
personal  charm,  his  strong  sympathies,  his  con- 
structive imagination,  and  his  hearty  idealism; 
and  whatever  else  he  may  be,  he  is  loyal  to  his 


180  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


friends  and  their  interests. 
He  may  not  be  so  intent  on 
doing  something,  but  he  has 
time  for  social  graces  and 
arts,  and  possesses  an  innate 
refinement  and  grace  of 
character  that  we  take  pride 
in  having  neglected. 

The  Latin  at  his  best  is 
the  racial  goal  of  South 
America.  Who  cares  to  be 
judged  by  the  social  leav- 
ings of  his  own  country? 
The  South  American  best 
is  intelligent,  refined,  and 
faithful  to  trusts.  His  men- 
tal processes  are  touched 
with  a  constructive  imagina- 
tion that  finds  high  expres- 
sion in  his  abundant  art  and 
literature.  With  a  nervous, 
artistic,  and  sensitive  tem- 
perament, he  responds 
quickly  to  friendly  ap- 


COCONUTS — SO   GOOD   AND   SO   HIGH 


LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART      18f 

proaches  and  stands  ready  to  do  his  full  share  in 
social  obligations. 

That  peons  and  ignor antes  are  not  thus  de- 
scribed is  only  to  say  that  the  tramps  and  social 
unacceptables  of  any  country  are  not  to  be  classed 
with  the  intellectuals  and  social  leaders. 

The  personal  equation  is  apt  to  be  decisive  in 
South  America.  Commercial  travelers  learn  this 
to  their  profit  or  loss,  as  they  adopt  or  disdain  the 
ruling  motives  of  the  men  with  whom  they  deal. 
It  may  do  very  well  in  some  cities  of  the  United 
States  for  the  breezy  commercial  traveler  to  dis- 
play his  samples,  deliver  his  oration,  and  give  the 
merchant  three  minutes  to  take  or  leave  the  best 
goods  on  earth.  Such  methods  in  Spanish  coun- 
tries means  no  business  at  all.  Selling  goods  in 
South  America  is  a  social  function  in  which  are 
involved  members  of  the  family  and,  incidentally, 
some  very  pleasant  hours.  Any  sort  of  make- 
believe  is  useless.  Unless  a  man  really  likes  the 
people  he  had  better  abandon  any  plans  to  do 
business  with  them.  He  may  get  on  in  Chicago, 
but  in  Bogota  he  will  be  very  lonesome. 

When  a  man  sells  goods  on  talk  he  may  dispose 
of  inferior  qualities  occasionally,  and  trust  that 
he  can  talk  enough  faster  next  time  to  make  up 
for  his  loss  of  standing;  but  when  goods  are  sold 
on  friendship  a  single  mistake  in  quality  means 
ruptured  relations  and  the  end  of  commercial 
confidence.  And  where  friendship  furnishes  the 


182  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

basis  of  business  the  buyer  will  protect  the  seller 
in  return  for  uniform  good  treatment  on  his  part. 
Like  all  other  racial  customs,  when  once  it  is 
understood  the  system  is  not  so  unreasonable  as 
at  first  appears. 

An  Englishman  traveling  in  South  America 
told  me  that  on  one  occasion  he  sold  a  large  bill 
of  goods  on  credit  to  a  man  who  proved  to  be  a 
rascal.  As  the  time  for  the  return  of  the  sales- 
man and  the  payment  for  the  goods  drew  near  the 
buyer  tried  to  sell  out  his  entire  stock  at  half 
price,  with  the  intention  of  leaving  the  country 
with  the  money.  But  all  the  other  merchants 
were  friends  of  the  salesman  and  refused  to  take 
advantage  of  the  situation,  to  the  loss  of  their 
friend.  They  preferred  to  lose  their  own  profits. 

Business  in  Latin-America  is  a  personal 
matter.  If  a  deal  goes  wrong,  somebody  is  re- 
sponsible. North  American  business  has  a  large 
impersonal  element,  and  the  man  who  makes  a 
bad  bargain  usually  feels  that  he  had  himself 
largely  to  blame.  The  joke  is  on  him,  and  he 
will  exercise  more  shrewdness*  next  time.  But 
the  southern  merchant  views  the  case  differently, 
and  it  behooves  the  salesman  to  handle  only  goods 
that  will  move  to  the  profit  of  the  buyer. 

When  once  this  basis  of  friendly  confidence  is 
well  set  up  it  is  easy  to  consummate  large  trans- 
actions with  very  little  preliminary  investigation. 
The  capitalist  is  more  interested  in  knowing  what 


LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART      183 

his  trusted  friend  thinks  than  in  getting  data 
upon  which  to  base  his  own  conclusions. 

National  ambassadors  and  Christian  mission- 
aries soon  learn  what  the  business  man  found  out 
long  ago:  that  there  is  only  one  road  to  success- 
ful relations  with  these  people  and  that  is  the  way 
of  the  heart.  Neither  minister  nor  missionary  nor 


BOILING  "DULCE" — CRUDE  SUQAB 

merchant  can  succeed  unless  he  genuinely  likes 
the  people  with^whom  he  is  dealing.  Any  mis- 
sionary who  is  afflicted  with  a  sense  of  superiority 
had  better  look  up  the  sailing  dates  of  any 
steamer  line  connecting  with  the  United  States. 

In  meeting  strangers  the  right  kind  of  a  letter 
of  introduction  has  high  value.  Let  the  letter  be 
from  a  personal  friend,  and  the  homes  and  hearts 
are  opened  in  a  way  that  surprises  the  more  coldly 


184  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

formal  man  from  the  north.  It  is  a  cheering  and 
heartening  experience  to  present  a  good  letter  to 
a  fine  family  and  be  received  with  a  cordiality  and 
genuine  hospitality  that  leaves  no  doubt  as  to 
the  honest  motives  of  the  hosts. 

But  how  are  we  to  find  the  road  to  the  heart  of 
any  people  unless  we  can  speak  to  them  in  their 
own  tongue  in  which  they  were  born?  The  in- 
terpreter does  very  well  for  trivial  and  formal 
matters,  but  who  wants  to  use  an  interpreter  in 
his  own  family?  Here  is  where  the  "United 
Stateser"  gets  into  trouble.  As  a  linguist  he  does 
not  shine;  in  fact,  he  is  barely  visible  in  a  good 
light.  He  considers  it  beneath  him  to  take  the 
trouble  to  learn  anyone's  language.  Why  should 
he?  He  can  speak  English  already.  If  anyone 
has  anything  to  say  to  him,  let  him  say  it  in  Eng- 
lish ;  and  if  he  cannot  speak  English,  then  surely 
he  can  have  nothing  worth  saying.  It  is  a  ready 
formula,  but  it  fails  to  reach  the  hearts  of  men 
who  do  not  happen  to  have  been  born  in  the 
United  States. 

The  Latin  is  a  better  linguist  than  his  neighbor 
to  the  north.  Nearly  all  the  better  class  people 
speak  some  English,  though  they  are  very  modest 
about  the  matter.  Practically  all  of  them  speak 
two  of  more  languages.  But  even  if  they  do 
surpass  us  in  speech  and  can  use  some  English, 
we  are  not  excused  from  acquiring  a  working 
knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  people  with 


LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART      185 

whom  we  are  to  deal.  The  increasing  develop- 
ment of  Spanish  teaching  in  North  American 
schools  is  one  of  the  most  helpful  signs  of  the 
times. 

Nowhere  does  the  innate  courtesy  of  the  Latin- 
American  shine  more  than  in  his  bearing  toward 
the  novice  who  tries  to  learn  his  language.  We 
of  the  United  States  are  wont  to  laugh  at  the  lin- 
guistic struggles  of  the  stranger  within  our  gates, 
but  not  so  with  the  South  American.  He  is  a 
gentleman,  and  will  take  immense  pains  to  assist 
anyone  who  makes  an  effort  to  talk  to  him.  He 
seems  to  regard  it  as  a  compliment  that  anyone 
should  try  to  use  his  language.  Any  faltering 
effort  will  receive  immediate  encouragement. 

A  volume  could  be  written  about  the  comical 
blunders  of  North  American  tyros  in  language 
learning.  A  hundred  or  two  garbled  words,  vig- 
orous guessing  and  violent  arm  action  make  up 
the  linguistic  equipment  of  some  would-be  "in- 
terpreters." Mixed  English,  Spanish,  jerks,  and 
profanity  will  do  wonders  where  there  is  nothing 
else,  but  as  substitutes  for  language  they  are  far 
from  ideal.  Classic  is  the  story  of  one  of  these 
interpreters  who  struggled  in  vain  to  deliver  the 
meaning  of  his  friend  to  a  native,  and  at  last  gave 
up  in  disgust,  regretting  that  he  "ever  learned  the 
blamed  language  anyway." 

Spanish  is  possibly  as  easy  to  learn  as  any  lan- 
guage other  than  that  of  one's  native  land.  Aside 


186  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

from  its  complicated  verb  and  annoying  gender, 
it  has  few  difficulties  that  need  cause  acute  dis- 
tress. But  the  score  of  "easy  methods"  without 
teachers  are  to  be  avoided.  There  is  no  easy  way 
to  learn  a  language.  It  takes  work,  hard  work, 
and  a  lot  of  it  to  learn  a  second  language.  But  it 
can  be  done,  and  to  acquire  a  new  medium  of  ex- 
pression, even  in  middle  life,  is  an  experience  not 
to  be  taken  lightly.  It  is  above  all  things  inter- 
esting. It  comes  at  last  to  this :  the  only  way  to 
speak,  write,  or  read  Spanish  effectively  is  to 
learn  it.  Short  cuts  bring  short  results. 

And  the  only  road  to  a  worthwhile  understand- 
ing of  the  Latin- American  is  that  of  a  sym- 
pathetic personal  acquaintance  and  genuine 
friendship.  It  is  a  matter  of  heart  more  than  of 
head,  and  unless  the  North  American  has  a  heart 
himself  he  had  better  acquire  one  or  abandon  his 
efforts  to  deal  with  the  Latin- American. 

To  the  traveler  from  the  Orient  Latin- Amer- 
ica is  easy  to  know.  There  is  much  in  Spanish 
ceremonial,  love  of  life  and  color  and  rhythm,  the 
innate  chivalry  and  politeness,  so  often  absent 
from  the  direct  processes  of  the  North  American, 
to  suggest  the  peculiar  charm  of  the  Orient  at  its 
best.  The  ornateness  of  architecture  appears  in 
the  East  and  West  in  nearly  equal  measure. 
When  it  comes  to  elaborate  speeches  and  flatter- 
ing expressions,  not  even  the  honorifics  of  cere- 
monial Japan  have  much  advantage  over  the  gra- 


LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART      187 

cious  and  complimentary  extravagances  of  the 
Spanish- American. 

It  was  at  a  school  entertainment  that  the  direc- 
tor, who  spoke  excellent  Spanish,  was  unavoid- 
ably absent,  and  the  writer  was  pressed  into 
service  at  the  last  moment  to  explain  some  stere- 
opticon  views  and  make  a  few  announcements. 
The  language  was  that  of  a  tyro  and  must  have 
afforded  material  for  much  amusement  to  the  cul- 
tured parents  of  the  school  children.  But  no  one 
laughed,  and  as  a  reporter  for  a  Spanish  paper 
chanced  to  be  on  hand,  the  morning  edition 
stated  that  the  entertainment  was  a  high  success 
and  that  the  views  were  described  in  the  choicest 
of  classic  Spanish  while  the  announcements  were 
delivered  with  a  diction  of  the  purest  and  highest 
type.  It  was  the  conventional  manner  of  describ- 
ing any  public  event. 

This  temperament  leads  to  oratory  as  rivers 
run  to  the  sea.  Given  a  few  ideas  for  a  start,  and 
any  educated  Latin  will  deliver  an  extempore 
oration  that  suggests  weeks  of  careful  prepara- 
tion. Rounded  periods  and  classic  expression 
mark  every  polished  phrase. 

Probably  the  most  perplexing  and  annoying 
thing  about  the  North  American  in  the  eyes  of  his 
southern  neighbor  is  our  incessant  hurry  and 
rush.  We  may  be  millionaires  in  money  but  we 
are  hopelessly  bankrupt  in  time.  And  the  South 
American  is  both  millionaire  and  philanthropist 


188  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

in  time.  He  always  has  a  surplus  and  is  willing 
to  use  it — and  his  friend's  too.  Some  of  our 
hurrying  about  is  regarded  as  a  great  joke. 
Clayton  Sedgwick  Cooper  quotes  a  Bengalese 
of  Calcutta  as  regarding  a  certain  Englishman 
as  "one  of  the  uncomfortable  works  of  God." 
Such  are  we  of  the  United  States  in  the  eyes  of 
our  southern  friends. 

The  formalities  of  social  life  are  of  vast  im- 
portance to  the  Panamanian,  and  they  are  also 
important  to  the  North  American  who  wishes  to 
transact  any  sort  of  business  with  officials  and 
educated  men  of  any  class.  Dress  suits  and  high 
hats  are  not  to  be  despised  if  one  is  to  get  on  in 
the  capital  city.  Neither  are  business  and  politics 
to  be  separated  if  any  business  is  to  be  done. 

During  1918  the  death  of  President  Valdez 
within  a  month  of  the  constitutional  date  of  the 
national  election  created  a  situation  in  which  the 
election  board  was  controlled  by  one  political 
party  and  the  police  department  by  the  other, 
spelling  inevitable  trouble.  Military  authorities 
on  the  Canal  Zone  took  a  hand  and  sent  over  a 
troop  of  cavalry  to  police  the  city  during  the  elec- 
tion week.  At  sight  of  the  soldiers  panic  pos- 
sessed many  women  and  children,  who  had  been 
told  that  the  Americans,  if  they  came,  would 
shoot  down  all  persons  on  the  street  without 
warning.  A  few  hours  convinced  the  populace  of 
the  error  of  this  widely  circulated  report,  and  the 


LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART      189 

election  passed  peacefully,  the  party  in  office 
winning. 

Panamanian  officials  are  uniformly  courteous, 
kindly,  and  will  go  to  any 
reasonable  length  to 
grant  any  proper  request, 
especially  if  it  comes  from 
a  friend.  I  have  called  on 
various  men  in  high 
authority  many  times  on 
diverse  matters  and  have 
never  failed  to  be  received 
cordially  and  given  the 
best  of  personal  treat- 
ment. It  has  occasionally 
happened,  however,  that 
after  leaving  the  official  I 
tried  to  recall  just  what 
he  had  stated  or  agreed  to 
do,  and  had  difficulty  in 
finding  anything  definite. 

Perhaps  Latin  char- 
acter reaches  its  highest 
level  in  family  life.  The 
women  of  the  Latin  race 

t         ft  -i  WASHING  BY   THE   RIVER 

are    noted    for    natural 

grace  and  comeliness,  and  in  their  own  homes 
they  give  themselves  to  their  husbands  and  chil- 
dren with  a  devotion  to  which  some  of  the  club 
women  of  northern  lands  are  strangers,  as  well 


190  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

as  their  families.  Motherhood  is  a  high  calling 
before  which  all  else  must  give  way.  The  open 
life  of  the  northern  family,  with  its  easy  conven- 
tions and  free  hospitality,  is  largely  unknown, 
but  a  close  and  intimate  family  life  is  built  up 
essentially  stronger  in  some  features  than  any- 
thing found  further  north.  The  Spanish  home  is 
a  very  select  and  secluded  affair,  into  the  charmed 
circle  of  which  only  the  most  intimate  friends  may 
enter. 

This  wife  and  mother  usually  knows  nothing 
of  her  husband's  affairs,  and  has  little  freedom 
of  the  streets  or  public  places.  There  is  none  of 
that  comradeship  in  business  interests  often 
found  in  the  States  between  husband  and  wife. 

The  senoritas,  or  young  women,  of  these  homes 
are  decidedly  feminine.  They  make  much  of  cos- 
metics, but  they  do  at  least  spare  us  the  assorted 
colors  of  the  hair  dyer's  art.  And  they  do  not 
make  a  holy  show  of  themselves  on  the  street, 
with  loud  manners  and  conspicuous  costumes, 
as  if  to  attract  attention  of  all  passers-by.  It 
must  be  said  that  some  of  the  better  class  young 
women  of  these  countries  are  "stunning  lookers," 
and  are  always  attractive  and  well  bred,  but  with 
limited,  educational  advantages  they  are  apt  to  be 
shallow  conversationalists.  Many  of  the  men 
prefer  them  that  way.  For  a  woman  to  know  too 
much  about  business  and  politics  detracts  from 
her  distinctly  feminine  charm  in  the  eyes  of  these 


LATIN-AMERICAN  HEART      191 

Spanish  men.  What  religious  devotion  exists  in 
these  countries  is  found  among  the  women,  who 
usually  go  regularly  to  mass  and  confession. 

Strictest  chaperonage  is  maintained  over 
young  women,  no  girl  being  permitted  for  a 
moment  to  be  alone  with  a  young  man,  a  system 
that  would  make  slow  headway  in  North  Amer- 
ica. And  the  women  are  long  suffering  with 
their  husbands,  from  whom  they  endure  conduct 
that  would  break  up  almost  any  North  American 
home. 

The  Panamanian  woman  has  none  of  the  bold- 
ness of  the  new  woman  of  Argentine,  nor  the 
ultra-timidity  of  Peruvian  seclusion.  She  knows 
the  value  of  balconies  and  lace  shawls  and  effec- 
tive coiffures,  and  it  must  be  said  that  in  spite  of 
rigorous  supervision  and  never-failing  modesty 
of  demeanor,  she  has  a  charm  and  a  "come- 
hither"  in  her  eye  that  has  won  the  heart  of  many 
a  North  American. 

The  possibilities  of  the  Latin  race  are  perhaps 
best  measured  by  the  occasional  rare  characters 
that  break  through  the  bonds  of  convention  and 
precedent  and  attain  an  altitude  of  gracious  no- 
bility unsurpassed  anywhere  on  earth.  Occa- 
sional products  of  missionary  schools  show  results 
in  character  and  efficiency  that  indicate  clearly 
the  latent  capacity  for  a  something  in  which  the 
brusque  Saxon  is  too  often  deficient. 

The  "Christ  of  the  Andes"  was  set  up  on  the 


192  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

boundary  line  between  Argentine  and  Chile  as  a 
suggestion  of  the  only  basis  of  permanent  peace 
in  the  life  and  teachings  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
This  famous  statue  was  the  result  of  the  work 
of  a  woman,  the  Senora  de  Costa,  president  of 
the  Christian  Mothers'  League  of  Buenos  Ayres. 
Cast  of  old  Spanish  cannon,  and  installed  in  its 
lofty  elevation  of  thirteen  thousand  feet  in  the 
Andes,  the  monument  was  dedicated  March  13, 
1914,  as  much  a  memorial  to  the  work  of  a  Latin- 
American  woman  as  a  testimonial  to  the  peaceful 
intentions  of  the  two  nations. 

There  is  a  Spanish  word,  not  exactly  trans- 
latable into  English,  which  may  be  taken  as  the 
key  to  Latin  character  at  its  best.  It  is  the  word 
"simpatico,"  which  means  something  more  than 
"sympathetic."  A  man  is  simpatico  when  he  is 
gracious  and  open-hearted  and  likable  and  con- 
siderate of  other  folks'  feelings.  There  ought 
to  be  a  course  in  simpatico  for  every  prospective 
missionary  and  business  man  in  the  United  States 
who  has  any  intention  of  dealing  with  the  Latin- 
American. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD 

READERS  of  Robinson  Crusoe  associate  the 
Caribbean  Sea  with  piracy  and  rum,  but  usually 
have  few  other  ideas  on  the  subject.  Most  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  have  scarcely  so  much 
as  heard  that  there  be  any  Caribbean  world  ex- 
cept that  it  is  somewhere  in  the  tropics. 

To  be  sure,  the  Caribbean  Sea  has  a  way  of 
impressing  itself  upon  those  who  sail  its  troubled 
tides.  Perhaps  the  shades  of  the  villains  who 
used  to  cross  these  waters  on  their  murderous  ex- 
peditions still  linger  to  raise  the  adverse  winds 
and  toss  the  seasick  passenger  in  his  misery. 
Certain  it  is  that  very  few  travelers  have  any 
affection  for  the  seven  hundred  miles  of  salt 
water  between  the  Mosquito  Coast  and  the  islands 
so  notorious  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

It  is  with  something  of  surprise,  then,  that  the 
prowler  about  Panama  learns  of  a  homogeneous 
population  living  on  the  chain  of  islands  that 
begins  below  Porto  Rico  and  swings  downward 
in  a  graceful  curve  to  the  tip  of  the  South  Amer- 
ican coast.  These  Lesser  Antilles  mark  the 
eastern  boundaries  of  the  famous,  or  /^famous, 
Caribbean  Sea.  Though  small  in  size,  their  con- 

193 


194  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

siderable  numbers  and  large  populations  make 
them  important.  If  they  are  not  so  well  known 
now,  at  least  they  have  the  distinction  of  having 
been  discovered  by  Columbus  when  he  set  out  to 
find  a  way  to  the  East  Indies  and  discovered  the 
West  Indies  instead. 

The  political  complexion  of  these  islands  varies 
greatly.  Government  is  shared  by  Spain, 
France,  England,  and  the  United  States,  and  the 
languages  spoken  conform  to  the  governing 


COSTA   RICA   FARM   HOME 


power.  The  purchase  of  the  Danish  West  Indies 
has  given  the  United  States  a  permanent  and 
prominent  influence  in  the  group. 

No  account  of  matters  Panamanian  could  omit 
reference  to  the  people  of  this  West  Indian 
world.  From  the  beginning  of  Panama's  history 
Caribbean  adventurers  have  crossed  the  sea  in 
any  craft  that  would  float,  and  have  played  a 
large  part  in  the  restless  events  of  the  Isthmus. 
West  Indian  influence  and  blood  were  mingled 
with  the  history  of  the  Isthmus  for  four  hundred 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      195 

years,  and  in  these  last  days  it  has  been  the  West 
Indian  who  furnished  the  labor  that  dug  the 
Panama  Canal,  and  who  still  contributes  the 
brawn  and  perspiration  for  the  work  of  the  Canal 
Zone.  Twenty-five  thousand  of  these  people  live 
on  or  near  the  Zone  and  are  employed  by  its  gov- 
ernment, and  probably  as  many  more  live  near 
by  and  mingle  with  the  native  life  of  Panama. 
All  through  the  interior  there  are  always  some 
West  Indians. 

Without  the  West  Indian  the  digging  of  the 
Canal  would  not  have  been  impossible,  but  would 
have  been  much  more  difficult.  Chinese  coolies 
would  have  cost  more  to  import  and  could  hardly 
have  worked  for  less  money.  Considering  the 
cost  of  living  on  the  Canal  Zone,  the  West  Indian 
has  furnished  some  of  the  cheapest  labor  in  the 
world.  In  construction  days  the  nine  or  ten  cents 
an  hour  wage  was  more  than  the  black  man  had 
received  at  home,  but  his  living  expenses  on  the 
Zone  were  very  much  higher  than  on  the  Carib- 
bean Islands.  The  wage  scale  of  the  West  In- 
dian on  the  Canal  Zone  has  been  revised  and  in- 
creased several  times  by  the  American  govern- 
ment in  an  effort  to  keep  pace  with  the  rising  cost 
of  living;  but  it  must  be  said  that  the  laborer's 
wage  of  about  thirty  dollars  a  month,  with  from 
three  dollars  to  six  dollars  deducted  for  the  rent 
of  two  rooms,  does  not  afford  a  very  sumptuous 
living  for  a  man  and  his  family.  The  "silver" 


196  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

man  on  the  Zone  pays  the  same  price  for  his  food 
and  clothes  as  does  the  "gold"  white  man  who  re- 
ceives twenty-five  per  cent  higher  wages  than  is 
paid  for  the  same  work  in  the  States,  and  in  addi- 
tion has  a  furnished  apartment  or  cottage  free  of 
rent  cost.  The  men  on  the  "gold"  rate  complain 
of  the  high  cost  of  living.  What  they  would  do 
if  reduced  to  one  sixth  of  their  present  wages  they 
do  not  stop  to  consider.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  sub- 
ject to  face,  but  it  is  hoped  that  the  wages  of  the 
West  Indian  may  be  lifted  to  the  point  where  he 
can  at  least  buy  food  enough  to  keep  him  in  good 
physical  condition. 

The  West  Indies  furnishes  the  plantation  labor 
of  Panama  and  Costa  Rica,  without  which  there 
would  be  little  plantation  work  done.  In  the  hot 
and  humid  banana  groves  he  endures  the  temper- 
ature and  handles  the  huge  banana  bunches  as 
though  born  for  the  job,  as  perhaps  he  is.  Out 
from  Almirante  and  Puerto  Limon  range  the 
tracks  of  the  plantation  railroads  through  hun- 
dreds of  miles  of  banana  forests,  where  the  black 
man  supplies  the  labor  for  the  largest  farms  in 
the  world.  Forty  or  fifty  thousand  of  these  peo- 
ple live  on  and  about  the  plantations  of  the  At- 
lantic coast  and  without  them  the  largest  agri- 
cultural enterprise  ever  carried  on  under  one 
management  would  collapse. 

The  West  Indian  on  the  Isthmus  is  not  the 
West  Indian  at  home.  He  may  live  and  die  on 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      197 


the  mainland,  but  he  thinks  in  terms  of  the  islands 
from  which  he  came.  Like  the  American  Negro, 
he  is  of  African  descent,  but  his  African  origin 
is  so  remote  that  no  trace  of  it  remains  in  his  con- 
sciousness, though  it  is  evi- 
dent in  his  psychology.  Most 
of  the  West  Indians  about 
the  Canal  Zone  dream  of  re- 
turning to  the  islands  again. 

These  people  of  the  Carib- 
bean world  have  a  decided 
race  consciousness,  and  in 
their  thinking  and  living  are 
a  world  unto  themselves. 
Separate  and  distinct  from 
the  Greater  Antilles  and  the 
mainland,  they  know  very 
little  of  the  continental  life 
and  customs,  and  any  at- 
tempt to  classify  them  with 
American  Negroes  or  Euro- 
peans raises  a  set  of  social 
problems  difficult  to  solve. 

To  the   North   American 


BANANAS   THIRTY   FEET  HIGH 


198  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


the  mental  processes  of  the  West  Indian  are  a 
psychological  jungle  in  which  the  explorer  is  soon 
lost.  Perhaps  no  one  has  yet  essayed  to  really 
understand  this  man,  and  those  who  have  tried  to 
analyze  him  maintain  that  he  does  not  understand 
himself.  Certain  it  is  that  he  does  not  trouble 
himself  with  any  self  -anal- 
ysis. He  has  enough 
other  things  to  occupy  his 
attention.  With  the  psy- 
chological background  of  his 
remote  African  ancestors, 
his  race  characteristics  have 
changed  very  little  since  the 
days  when  his  forefathers 
were  forcibly  torn  from 
their  native  land  and  de- 
ported into  savage  slavery. 

The       ^^      Sanctions      of 


SAN   BLA8   INDIANS    HAVE 

"POKER  FACES"  the  West  Indian  are  rigid 
and  well  established.  The  list  of  forbidden  things 
is  long  and  complex,  and  of  signs,  and  dreams  and 
portents,  strange  and  powerful,  there  seems  no 
end.  Numerous  negatives  appear  in  his  social 
and  personal  creed,  and  he  who  violates  these 
prohibitions  must  be  a  courageous  soul.  To  in- 
troduce any  original,  new  idea  into  this  scheme 
of  things  is  a  difficult  task,  and  is  apt  to  arouse  a 
whole  chain  of  reactions,  complex  and  mysteri- 
ous. This  man  will  follow  literally  any  able 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      199 

leadership,  but  the  leader  must  go  in  the  direction 
of  the  established  currents  of  opinion  or  he  will 
have  a  hard  time  of  it. 

The  West  Indian  has  a  religious  capacity  that 
impresses  the  visitor  as  a  remarkable  aptitude  for 
things  sacred.  Such,  indeed,  it  is.  And  the  reli- 
gious life  of  the  earnest  and  conscientious  mem- 
bers of  this  race  exhibits  a  fine  type  of  devotion 
and  sacrifice.  As  might  be  expected,  there  is  free 
expression  of  emotional  experience,  but  on  the 
whole  those  who  are  truly  religious  match  their 
songs  by  their  deeds  and  their  testimonies  by  their 
lives.  Practically  nothing  is  known  on  the 
Isthmus  of  anything  bordering  on  hysteria. 
When  it  comes  to  familiarity  with  the  English 
Bible  the  average  church  member  will  put  to 
shame  his  white  friend,  and  in  interpretation  of 
scripture  some  very  unique  and  interesting  ef- 
forts are  produced. 

In  matters  of  doctrine  most  of  these  people  are 
rigid  immersionists.  The  women  invariably  wear 
their  hats  in  church,  on  the  ground  that  Saint 
Paul  commanded  such  observance,  but  they 
ignore  the  exhortation  of  the  same  apostle  that 
the  women  keep  silence  in  the  churches.  All  spe- 
cial occasions  possess  thrilling  interest,  and  al- 
most any  West  Indian  will  go  hungry  to  get  good 
clothes.  How  they  manage  to  dress  as  well  as 
they  do  on  the  incomes  they  receive  is  a  mystery 
that  has  not  yet  been  solved. 


200  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

An  experienced  missionary  among  these  people 
says  that  practically  every  West  Indian  at  some 
time  in  his  life  is  a  member  of  some  church.  If 
this  is  true,  many  of  the  West  Indians  in  Panama 
are  backsliders,  as  a  majority  are  not  at  present 
showing  any  interest  in  Christian  observances  or 
moral  living.  Possibly  many  of  those  who  are 
genuinely  devout  and  consistently  Christian 
establish  a  membership  in  several  different 
churches,  one  after  the  other.  Tiring  of  one 
church,  discontented  with  the  pastor,  or  encoun- 
tering personal  difficulties  with  other  members,  it 
is  easy  and  convenient  to  join  some  other  congre- 
gation, and  of  split-ups  and  break-offs  there 
seems  no  end.  Nearly  every  church  on  the 
Isthmus  has  had  its  deflections  and  divisions,  and 
anything  like  the  modern  movement  toward  unity 
and  cooperation  of  the  Christian  program  is  a 
terra  incognita  to  this  enthusiastic  individualist. 

A  surprising  thing  is  the  capacity  for  financial 
self-sacrifice  of  the  West  Indian.  Out  of  the 
pennies  that  he  receives  as  wages  he  contributes 
liberally  to  the  support  of  his  church  and  for  the 
education  of  his  children.  Nearly  all  West  In- 
dian churches  on  and  near  the  Canal  Zone  are 
self-supporting,  and  nearly  all  West  Indian 
schools  are  maintained  from  tuition  fees.  If 
these  people  were  to  receive  good  wages,  they 
would  not  only  wear  good  clothes  but  would  con- 
tribute to  community  enterprises  and  keep  their 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      201 


children  in  school  as  long  as  possible.  That  the 
more  dissolute  members  of  the  community  would 
spend  their  money  for  rum  is  no 
reason  for  depriving  the  laborer  of 
his  hire. 

Living  without  adequate  means 
of  recreation  or  possibil- 
ities of  culture  or  wide  in- 
formation, life  is  never- 
theless saved  from  deadly 
monotony  by  the  exercise 
of  the  high  gifts  of  con- 
troversy. When  it  comes 
to  a  straight,  head-on 
wrangle  the  West  Indian 
shines  in  a  glory  all  his 
own.  Not  even  a  loqua- 
cious Oriental  can  surpass 
his  powers  of  abuse  and 
lordly  contempt  for  his 
adversary.  If  words 
were  bullets,  the  whole 
population  would  perish 
in  twenty-four  hours,  in- 
nocent and  guilty  to- 
gether. To  the  uniniti- 
ated bystander  it  seems 
that  an  empire  is  being  lost,  but  the  old-timers 
cease  to  heed  the  quarreling  and  go  their  way 
indifferent  to  the  social  safety  valve  of  these 


WHERE   STYLES    MOLEST 
NO    MORE 


202  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

greatest  natural  controversialists  of  the  tropic 
world.  A  young  woman  on  the  train  in  Costa 
Rica  left  her  seat  to  speak  to  a  friend  and 
another  girl  slipped  in  next  to  the  window. 
When  the  visitor  returned  the  program  began. 
Back  and  forth  flew  claims,  charges  and  counter- 
charges as  to  the  ownership  of  the  seat.  With 
indescribable  scorn  the  usurper  said,  "Do  you 
want  a  seat  in  my  lap  ?"  which  provoked  "Ah,  now 
I  see  how  you  was  raised." 

"Indeed,  and  you  have  no  manners  at  all,  it  is 
plain  to  be  seen." 

Back  and  forth  the  duel  rages  until  the  first 
claimant  sought  another  seat,  saying,  "I  certainly 
does  respect  myself  too  highly  to  sit  by  the  likes 
of  you." 

The  combat  closed  thus:  "When  I  look  upon 
you  I  know  what  you  is,  for  I  can  read  your  face." 

All  of  which  falls  flat  without  the  wholly  in- 
imitable accent  of  the  Jamaican  dialect. 

This  accent  of  the  British  subject  in  the  West 
Indies  is  a  dialect  so  peculiar  that  it  defies  the 
most  skillful  impersonators.  Somehow  only 
those  to  the  manner  born  seem  able  to  acquire  or 
imitate  the  strong  combination  of  London  cock- 
ney and  African  rhythm.  The  more  intelligent 
and  better-educated  people  speak  intelligibly,  but 
it  is  common  to  hear  alleged  English  that  is  al- 
most impossible  to  understand.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  resemblance  to  the  traditional  dialect  of 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      203 

the  Southern  Negro,  and  as  for  expressing  it  in 
cold  type  there  is  no  alphabet  on  earth  that  can 
represent  the  sounds  and  inflections  produced. 

The  West  Indian  in  Panama  has  a  certain 
economic  efficiency  on  the  level  to  which  he  has 
been  trained,  otherwise  he  would  not  have  been 
brought  to  the  Zone  by  tens  of  thousands  and 
retained  there  through  the  years  of  Canal  con- 
struction on  into  the  present  period  of  operation 
and  maintenance.  Under  a  boss  this  man  is  faith- 
ful and  efficient,  provided  the  task  assigned  him 
is  within  the  scope  of  his  training  and  ability. 
And  however  slow  or  inaccurate  he  may  be,  he 
can  hardly  help  earning  the  wages  that  he  re- 
ceives. And  if  he  did  not  work  at  all,  the  pa- 
tience with  which  he  endures  the  frequent  abuse 
and  cursings  of  the  impatient  gang  bosses  ought 
to  be  worth  something.  Certainly,  the  reader  of 
this  would  not  take  what  is  handed  out  to  the 
West  Indian  for  ten  times  his  wages.  It  is  true 
that  he  is  not  strong  on  independent  judgment, 
and  that  when  left  to  his  own  counsel  he  may  do 
some  strange  things  and  perhaps  very  little  of 
anything.  But  how  is  a  man  to  develop  judg- 
ment who  has  never  borne  responsibility? 

Deep  down  in  the  heart  of  this  man  is  slowly 
rising  a  resentment  against  the  economic  condi- 
tions he  finds  on  the  Zone,  and  in  many  cases 
silent  and  dangerous  hate  is  gradually  filling  the 
hearts  of  the  unorganized  and  helpless  "silver" 


204  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

men.  Unless  conditions  are  improved  the  time 
may  come  when  this  resentment  may  flare  up  in  a 
useless  and  hopeless  protest.  But  it  is  more 
likely  that  the  wage  scale  will  be  readjusted  from 
time  to  time  and  the  explosion  forestalled.  Oc- 
casionally some  of  these  people  get  away  to  the 
United  States,  but  none  of  them  ever  return. 
For  them  the  patriarchal  Canal  Zone  offers  no 
attractions  compared  with  the  free  competition  of 
the  States.  It  is  maintained  by  officials  of  the 
Zone  that  the  wage  scale  is  as  high  as  available 
funds  will  warrant ;  that  if  the  West  Indian  had 
any  more  money,  it  would  do  him  no  good,  and 
that  the  increases  in  wages  already  granted  have 
fully  kept  pace  with  the  rise  in  the  cost  of  living. 
In  matters  of  personal  morals  the  West  Indian 
is  accused  of  loose  matrimonial  practices.  A 
priest  said  to  me  one  day  that  if  two  command- 
ments— the  seventh  and  eighth — could  be  omitted 
from  the  Ten,  the  West  Indian  would  get  along 
all  right.  This  slander  is  not  deserved;  but  in- 
vestigation into  facts  reveals  that  the  morals  of 
the  West  Indians  are  but  little  better  than  those 
of  Panama.  Concubinage  is  widely  practiced, 
with  a  system  of  financial  support;  but  no  more 
so  than  everywhere  else  in  the  tropics  except  on 
the  Canal  Zone,  where  moral  conditions  are  ex- 
ceptionally good.  The  remark  of  the  priest  may 
have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of  the  West 
Indians  are  Protestants. 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      205 


Some  characteristics  of  rare  merit  and  inter- 
est occasionally  arise  among  these  people.  They 
do  not  sing  as  well  as  their  northern  cousins,  but 
they  produce  orators  of  no 
mean  ability.  Earnest,  con- 
sistent, faithful,  affectionate, 
and  original  in  expression, 
the  best  of  these  people  af- 
ford promise  of  what  may  be 
expected  when  better  condi- 
tions bring  large  opportu- 
nity. 

Like  other  races  not  long 
exposed  to  civilization,  the 
children  of  these  people  show 
surprising  precocity.  They 
give  excellent  account  of 
themselves  in  primary 
schools,  and  in  performances 
at  public  entertainments  they 
are  letter-perfect.  Fifty 
numbers  on  a  program  and 
never  a  slip  or  a  failure 
throughout,  and  not  a  com- 
plaint or  criticism  except  that 
it  was  a  little  short.  One 
large  church  established  a  record  by  producing 
JSL  Christmas  program  containing  one  hundred 
and  eight  numbers.  Through  the  primary  years 
these  youngsters  sometimes  surpass  their  white 


CHINESE    ALWAYS    START 
A    SCHOOL 


'SCHOOLDAYS" 


206  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

friends,  but  the  economic  pressure  of  living  con- 
ditions crowds  them  nearly  all  out  of  school  at 
the  end  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  grade.  Once  they 
get  a  groundwork  in  the  three  "Rs"  they  are  con- 
sidered well  educated  for  life. 

As  may  be  expected,  the  birth  rate  is  high,  but 
large  families  are  rare  because  of  the  distressing 
and  unnecessary  high  rate  of  infant  mortality. 
How  could  it  be  otherwise  when  a  whole  family 
lives  in  one  room  on  twenty-five  dollars  a  month 
with  food  at  New  York  prices? 

That  the  Jamaicans  are  a  gregarious  folk  is  to 
be  expected.  The  social  instinct  is  always  strong 
in  any  people  of  African  descent.  Canal  Zone 
bosses  complain  that  their  employees  prefer  to 
leave  the  clean  and  sanitary  quarters  of  the  Zone 
and  live  in  the  Guachapali  and  San  Miguel  dis- 
tricts of  Panama  and  in  Colon,  where  they  are 
crowded  together  in  a  way  that  would  prove  fatal 
to  a  white  man.  The  constant  company  and 
crowded  conditions  do  not  trouble  the  West  In- 
dians, whereas  the  rigid  restrictions  of  the  silver 
quarters  of  the  Zone  he  often  finds  objectionable. 

What  the  West  Indian  most  needs  is  a  fair 
chance.  He  is  cursed  and  disparaged  on  every 
hand.  He  is  to  blame  for  being  ragged  and  un- 
washed, but  when  he  goes  hungry  and  dresses  up, 
then  he  is  a  hopeless  spendthrift  and  a  fraudulent 
dude.  It  is  useless  to  pay  him  fair  wages  because 
he  would  spend  the  money.  Unscrupulous  land- 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      207 

lords  are  allowed  to  extort  enormous  rents  for 
.wretched  quarters  in  Panama  and  Colon,  be- 
cause, if  the  Jamaican  did  not  spend  his  money 
that  way,  he  would  pay  it  out  for  something  else. 
He  is  looked  down  upon  as  not  being  highly  edu- 
cated, and  it  is  claimed  that  the  more  he  knows 
the  worse  off  he  is.  No  matter  what  happens  he 
is  to  blame.  If  the  cholera  should  appear  in 
Panama,  or  the  Gold  Hill  should  slide  into  the 
Canal,  the  West  Indian  would  be  the  guilty 
party.  Surely,  he  is  worth  his  wages  merely  as 
a  target  for  the  verbal  explosions  of  his  boss. 
Some  men  would  have  difficulty  in  holding  their 
jobs  were  it  not  for  the  timely  assistance  of  this 
"goat"  of  the  Zone.  Living  conditions  in  Cale- 
donia and  Guachapali  would  give  the  New  York 
East  Side  something  to  think  about.  Rooms  ten 
or  twelve  feet  square  are  rented  out  to  families 
who  usually  stretch  a  curtain  across  the  middle, 
sleep  huddled  together  in  the  rear  at  night,  and 
live  in  the  front  of  the  "flat"  the  rest  of  the  time. 
From  some  primitive  prejudice  comes  a  violent 
dislike  of  fresh  air,  especially  at  night,  when 
every  room  is  as  nearly  as  possible  hermetically 
sealed.  In  a  tropical  temperature  no  one  has  yet 
explained  how  the  inmates  live  till  morning. 

Naked  children  swarm  in  the  streets.  At  first 
the  visitor  is  properly  shocked,  but  soon  ceases  to 
notice  these  ebony  cherubs.  In  time,  however, 
one  does  get  tired  of  it.  Along  the  sidewalks  and 


208  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

in  the  doorsteps  the  evening  hours  are  turned  into 
neighborhood  debating  societies  and  wrangling 
clubs,  and  between  the  arguments  and  disputes, 
^nd  the  always  nearby  street  meeting,  there  is 
never  a  dull  moment.  That  is  why  they  prefer 
living  there  to  the  quiet  and  monotonous  life  in 
the  silver  town  on  the  Zone. 

Religious  gatherings  on  the  street  are  a  marked 
feature  of  the  night  life  of  this  part  of  the  city. 
Torchlights  and  crowds,  vigorous  singing  and 
enthusiastic  exhortations  mark  the  visible  fea- 
tures of  the  efforts  of  these  earnest  persuaders 
of  their  neighbors  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come. 
If  street  demonstrations  were  confined  to  reli- 
gious meetings,  all  might  be  well.  While  ever- 
present  canteenas  dispense  cheap  and  deadly  rum 
,there  will  always  be  people  who  will  go  hungry 
and  ragged  to  buy  "firewater,"  and  with  one  or 
vtwo  drinks  aboard  the  West  Indian  becomes  a 
very  talkative  and  quarrelsome  person.  Often 
have  I  seen  sidewalks  spattered  with  blood,  and 
a  common  sight  is  that  of  a  couple  of  policemen 
leading  away  a  gory  victim  or  culprit. 

So  scanty  is  the  food  ration  of  these  people  that 
the  general  custom  prevails  of  eating  very  little 
during  the  day  and  then  making  a  feast  at  night 
of  whatever  food  can  be  secured.  The  Meth- 
odist missionary  school  in  this  district  established 
a  soup  line  at  noon  for  the  feeding  of  hungry 
babies  who  came  to  the  school  without  their  break- 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      209 

fast  and  had  nothing  at  home  to  eat  at  noon. 
Any  sort  of  "learning"  under  such  circumstances 
was  impossible. 

Three  or  four  things  must  be  supplied  if  the 
West  Indian  is  to  rise  above  his  present  level. 
He  needs  living  wages,  he  needs  intelligent  and 
responsible  leadership;  he  needs  a  better  educa- 
tion, and  he  needs  a  broader  social  basis  and  a 
wider  horizon  for  his  circle  of  life. 

There  are  a  few  lawyers  and  doctors  and  teach- 
ers of  this  race,  and  there  are  a  number  of  preach- 
ers, who  consider  themselves  to  be  the  intellec- 
tuals, but  there  is  no  concert  of  purpose  or  plan 
for  progress  among  these  people.  Each  man  is 
intent  upon  exalting  his  own  personal  promi- 
nence, or  furthering  the  interests  of  the  little 
group  to  which  he  belongs.  West  Indian  life  at 
present  is  segregated  into  little  cliques  and  rings, 
represented  by  churches,  lodges,  dancing  clubs, 
and  other  organizations.  So  far  no  common 
cause  has  united  any  of  these  factors  in  any  pro- 
gram of  progress.  So  intent  are  they  upon  indi- 
vidual emphasis  that  any  thought  of  the  social 
whole  seems  almost  impossible.  Several  efforts 
have  been  made  to  unite  in  a  common  program  of 
service  the  different  churches  in  a  given  commu- 
nity, but  so  far  small  success  has  attended  these 
worthy  plans. 

Perhaps  more  than  almost  anything  else  the 
West  Indian  needs  racial  self-respect.  He  is 


210  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

humble  enough  before  his  boss,  and  if  well  treated 
is  loyal  and  faithful ;  but  for  his  own  kind  he  has 
little  appreciation.  "I  will  never  work  for  my 
own  color,"  boasted  a  proud  cook  one  day.  And 
one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of  the  mission- 
ary grows  out  of  the  fact  that  the  West  Indians 
generally  despise  each  other.  To  arouse  leader- 
;ship  and  stimulate  ambition  among  a  people  who 
look  down  upon  themselves  is  a  big  task.  The 
individual  man  will  have  to  get  his  mind  on  some- 
thing besides  his  effort  to  exalt  himself  above  all 
his  fellows  before  any  great  progress  can  be 
made.  The  fundamental  trouble  with  the  West 
Indian  is  that  he  looks  up  to  those  whom  he  con- 
siders his  superiors  and  looks  down  upon  every- 
body else.  It  seems  difficult  for  him  to  look 
across  or  on  a  level,  and  recognize  other  people  as 
being  on  the  same  plane  with  himself. 

The  educational  equipment  of  these  people 
needs  to  be  extended  beyond  the  present  mere 
elements  of  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic. 
Some  intellectual  window  into  the  great  world 
out  beyond  the  Caribbean  Sea  must  be  provided 
if  there  is  to  be  deliverance  from  the  superstition 
and  iron-bound  customs  that  have  held  them  fast 
for  ten  thousand  years. 

What  the  West  Indian  needs  is  not  more 
vigorous  swaying  of  congregations  nor  more 
loudly  shouting  enthusiasts,  but  a  program  of 
Christian  living  that  will  enlarge  the  boundaries 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      211 

of  life  and  push  back  the  horizons  of  interest. 
Debating  societies,  reading  courses,  study  clubs, 
extension  lectures,  night  schools,  vocational  train- 
ing, good  moving  picture  programs — all  of  these 
.will  do  much  to  break  the  spell  of  the  past  and  in- 
troduce new  ideas  where  they  will  take  root  and 
bear  harvest.  Here  is  a  fertile  field  for  a  Chris- 
tian settlement,  but  the  settlement  worker  should 
be  a  resident  of  the  community.  One  difficulty 
with  the  mission  work  now  conducted  is  that  it  is 
done  from  the  top  down,  and  from  the  outside  in. 
Any  attempt  toward  higher  education  will  need 
some  endowment.  It  is  a  tragedy  that  these 
people,  out  of  their  wretched  poverty,  are  com- 
pelled to  pay  tuition  fees  for  the  meager  educa- 
tion that  their  children  receive.  Some  of  the 
plans  now  being  formulated  for  a  broader  work 
in  these  communities  deserve  every  encourage- 
ment and  support. 

It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  West  Indian 
that  he  nearly  always  manages  in  some  way  to 
send  his  children  to  school,  cost  what  it  may. 
Considering  his  opportunities,  he  does  well.  If 
the  American  people  were  suddenly  asked  to  pay 
one  or  two  dollars  a  month  for  each  child  sent  to 
school,  there  would  be  educational  revolution. 

It  is  the  intention  of  the  Canal  Zone  govern- 
ment to  house  its  employees  on  the  Zone  as  soon 
as  quarters  can  be  provided,  but  this  will  require 
some  time.  As  all  "silver"  employees  are  charged 


212  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


a  monthly  rent  for  these  quarters,  the  project  is 
a  business  matter  for  the  Zone.  Twelve  families 
are  usually  quartered  in  one  two-story  house,  two 
rooms  and  a  porch  section  to 
the  family,  with  two  wash 
rooms  and  sanitary  quarters 
for  the  whole  house.  At 
five  dollars  per  month  rent 
for  each  family,  the  house 
yields  an  income  of  eight 
hundred  and  forty  dollars 
per  year.  In  a  building  of 
about  the  same  size  four 
white  families  would  be 
quartered  rent  free. 

There  is  abundant  oppor- 
tunity in  the  Republic  of 
Panama  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  agricultural  coloniza- 
tion schemes.  Good  land  is 
plentiful.  Families  could  be 
placed  on  the  land  without 
much  housing  expense,  and 
if  food  could  be  supplied 
them  for  a  few  months,  self- 
support  would  soon  be  es- 
tablished. Some  philanthropist  might  render 
valuable  service  and  open  up  new  opportunities 
for  a  large  number  of  these  people  by  placing 
them  out  on  the  land  where  each  family  could 


MOTHER,    HOME,     AND 

THE    SIMPLE    LIFE 


THE  CARIBBEAN  WORLD      213 

have  its  own  house  and  where  better  conditions 
prevail.  A  colony  of  one  thousand  souls  grouped 
about  a  central  church  and  school  and  store  would 
afford  new  hope  and  better  living  to  these  dwell- 
ers in  the  crowded  tenements. 

What  may  be  the  future  of  the  West  Indian 
on  the  Isthmus  is  not  yet  clearly  established,  and 
the  Canal  Zone  authorities  have  heretofore  re- 
garded the  "silver"  men  as  more  of  a  temporary 
necessity  than  permanent  residents.  As  indus- 
trial conditions  on  the  Zone  become  more  stable, 
however,  it  appears  that  there  always  will  be 
needed  a  large  labor  force  with  a  minimum  of 
about  twenty  thousand  people;  and  unless  some 
new  factor  appears  or  is  imported,  the  West  In- 
dian is  going  to  supply  this  labor  demand  for 
years  to  come.  This  being  the  case,  the  laborer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire  and  should  be  paid  a  fair  wage 
for  what  he  does.  And  the  missionaries  and  social 
workers  who  are  interested  in  the  welfare  of  these 
people  need  a  coordinated  and  unified  program 
of  religious  and  educational  advance.  So  long  as 
the  present  disjointed  and  unconnected  methods 
are  followed,  scattering  and  sometimes  inhar- 
monious results  will  appear. 

So  long  as  there  is  work  for  a  laborer  in  Pan- 
ama, so  long  the  Caribbean  man  will  be  found 
here  in  such  numbers  as  may  be  needed,  and  so 
long  as  he  is  here  he  at  least  deserves  good  treat- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  PANAMA  CANAL 

PROBABLY  most  pilgrims  to  Panama  think  of 
the  Canal  as  the  outstanding  feature  of  the 
American  tropics,  and  in  one  way  such  it  is.  The 
traveler  will  probably  want  to  see  the  Canal  first, 
and  he  will  find  it  well  worthy  of  preferential  po- 
sition. 

The  story  of  construction  days  and  engineer- 
ing problems  has  been  ably  told  elsewhere  and 
does  not  belong  here.  Every  intelligent  traveler 
will  secure  some  good  account  of  the  work  and 
read  it  as  something  that  every  man  should  know. 
It  is  the  romance  de  luxe  of  engineering  achieve- 
ment. The  author  of  the  Arabian  Nights  Tales 
would  have  dug  the  Canal  by  the  sweep  of  a 
wand,  or  the  rubbing  of  an  old  lamp,  but  the 
American  method  is  vastly  more  interesting  and 
is  much  more  likely  to  remain  in  working  order. 
Aladdin's  engineering  feats  had  a  way  of  failing 
to  stay  put,  if  the  wrong  man  got  hold  of  the 
lamp,  but  the  present  Canal  shows  no  signs  of 
disappearing  overnight. 

Before  war  conditions  put  a  wall  around 
everything,  seeing  the  Canal  was  one  of  the  pleas- 
antest  and  easiest  of  touring  tasks.  All  was  in 

214 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          215 

plain  view,  or  could  readily  be  found  by  asking, 
and  most  of  the  men  on  duty  thought  it  a  pleasure 
to  answer  questions.  Of  camera  fiends  and 
sketchers  and  notebook  makers  there  were 
aplenty.  But  the  war  stopped  all  that  for  a  time. 
Anybody  could  look  at  the  Canal  from  almost 
any  point  along  its  survey,  but  the  locks  and 
docks  were  strictly  private  affairs.  There  are 
statistics  in  abundance  to  be  had  for  the  asking 
concerning  the  Big  Ditch.  Experts  take  pleas- 
ure in  supplying  us  with  entertainment  by  com- 
piling and  translating  figures  into  interesting 
statements.  For  instance,  enough  excavating 
was  done  on  the  Canal  to  dig  a  tunnel  fourteen 
feet  in  diameter  through  the  center  of  the  earth, 
eight  thousand  miles  of  boring.  It  takes  a  little 
time  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of  a  tunnel  from 
Valparaiso,  Chile,  to  Peking,  China,  or  straight 
through  from  the  north  pole  to  the  southern  tip  of 
the  world. 

Enough  concrete  was  used  to  build  a  wall  four 
feet  thick  and  twenty-five  feet  high  clear 
around  the  State  of  Delaware.  Probably  by 
walking  the  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  miles  rep- 
resented by  this  wall,  one  might  understand  the 
amount  of  concrete  involved  in  the  Canal  con- 
struction. 

The  enormous  size  of  the  locks  can  only  be 
understood  by  walking  their  length  through  the 
underground  tunnels  and  passageways  in  which 


216  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

is  located  the  marvelous  machinery  of  their  opera- 
tion. To  stand  on  the  floor  of  a  dry  lock  and  look 
up  at  a  lock  gate  eighty  feet  high,  seven  feet  thick 
and  sixty-five  feet  wide  is  an  impressive  expe- 
rience, but  to  see  a  pair  of  such  gates  swing  open 
and  shut  at  the  touch  of  the  finger  is  something 
to  be  remembered.  The  emergency  dams  look 
like  a  steel  girder  bridge,  which,  indeed,  they  are, 
and  provide  against  accidents  by  as  ingenious  a 
piece  of  mechanism  as  the  entire  system  affords. 
Enormous  iron  chains  with  hydraulic  springs  are 
stretched  across  the  entrance  to  the  locks  to  stop 
any  reckless  ship  which  might  otherwise  strike  the 
gates.  The  Gatun  Dam  alone  may  be  classed  as 
one  of  the  world's  greatest  achievements. 

The  builders  of  the  Canal  may  be  pardoned  for 
taking  pride  in  the  fact  that  the  entire  construc- 
tion cost,  down  to  the  present  day — three  years 
after  the  opening  of  the  Canal — is  still  within  the 
original  estimate  of  $375,000,000,  which  figure 
included  the  $40,000,000  paid  to  the  French  for 
the  work  of  the  earlier  construction.  This  means 
that  the  cost  of  the  Canal  was  a  little  less  than 
four  dollars  apiece  for  every  inhabitant  of  the 
United  States.  The  national  prestige  alone 
gained  by  the  successful  completion  of  the  work 
has  repaid  this  four-dollar  investment  many  times 
over.  Before  the  European  war  $400,000,000 
seemed  like  a  good  deal  of  money.  To-day  we 
think  of  it  as  a  very  small  sum.  <•** 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


217 


It  is  easy  to  find  numerous  compilations  of 
figures  which  astonish  and  perplex  us,  even 
though  they  do  help  us  to  understand  the  magni- 
tude of  the  work.  And  nothing  is  more  disap- 
pointing than  to  try  to  understand  the  Canal  by 
looking  at  it  from  any  point  along  the  bank.  You 
can't  see  the  Canal  for  the  water !  It  is  no  differ- 
ent from  a  great  Western  irrigating  ditch  and 


CONSTRUCTION    DAYS   IN    CULEBRA-QAILARD    CUT 

looks  like  any  quiet  river.  There  are  no  marks 
of  effort  or  strain  anywhere,  and  when  one  looks 
about  on  the  verdant  and  peaceful  landscape  he 
half  believes  that  the  tales  of  the  stirring  times 
back  in  construction  days  must  have  been  dreams. 
Culebra  Cut  looks  like  the  Hudson  palisades, 
and  Gatun  Lake  is  like  any  other  beautiful  in- 
land sea  in  a  rolling  country.  The  famous  Gatun 
Dam  L  merely  a  dyke  at  the  end  of  the  lake  and 


218  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

the  marvelous  spillway  is  only  a  picturesque 
waterfall  in  the  middle  of  a  dam.  As  for  the 
locks,  they  are  big  concrete  chambers  looking 
very  much  like  a  paved  street  on  top  and  reveal- 
ing nothing  of  the  complicated  mechanism  below ; 
and  the  germ-proof  towns  are  like  any  other  spot- 
lessly clean  villages  with  screened  houses,  and 
show  nothing  to  cause  us  astonishment. 

Any  superficial  view  of  the  Canal  is  disap- 
pointing. It  is  like  trying  to  understand  a  deep 
mine  by  looking  at  the  mouth  of  the  shaft.  The 
channel  is  full  of  water,  the  machinery  is  out  of 
sight,  the  great  achievements  of  sanitation  have 
been  largely  removals  of  materials,  microbes,  and 
conditions  that  have  left  no  trace  behind  to  tell 
their  tale.  In  one  way  it  is  a  negative  result. 

The  idea  of  the  Canal  across  the  Isthmus  is 
nearly  as  old  as  the  discovery  of  the  Isthmus  by 
white  men,  but  it  remained  for  the  intrepid 
builder  of  the  Suez  Canal  to  really  undertake  in 
earnest  the  project  of  a  waterway  between  the 
two  oceans.  DeLesseps  was  both  engineer  and 
promoter  and  never  really  understood  the  size  of 
his  project.  He  had  succeeded  at  Suez,  but  that 
was  a  farmer's  ditch  beside  the  Culebra  Cut  and 
the  Gatun  Dam,  and  the  famous  engineer  was  a 
very  old  man  when  he  began  on  the  Panama  pro- 
ject. The  high  prestige  of  his  name  brought  him 
money  on  a  stock  investment  basis,  and  when 
unprincipled  schemers  got  control  of  the  com- 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          219 

pany  the  crash  and  scandal  were  immense.  De- 
Lesseps  himself  became  insane  as  the  result  of  the 
worry  and  disgrace  and  died  in  a  hospital. 

The  French  attempt  began  on  January  1, 
1880,  with  a  great  deal  of  oratory  and  cham- 
pagne, also  the  official  blessing  of  the  Bishop  of 
Panama,  which  seems  to  have  been  something  of 
a  Jonah  on  the  enterprise. 

In  striking  contrast  was  the  beginning  of  the 
American  work  when  a  few  men  climbed  out  of 
a  boat  into  water  waist-deep  and  began  cutting 
down  jungle  brush. 

The  actual  construction  and  excavation  work 
begun  on  the  Isthmus  by  the  French  was  of  a 
very  high  order,  and  much  of  it  was  used  by  the 
Americans.  The  two  causes  which  defeated  the 
French  were  reckless  financing  at  home  and  trop- 
ical diseases  on  the  Isthmus.  So  bad  did  the 
disease  conditions  become  that  in  the  fall  months 
of  1884  fifty-five  thousand  people  died,  and  in 
the  single  month  of  September,  1885,  the  total 
rate  reached  the  high-water  mark  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy-seven  per  thousand  of  population. 
The  total  of  lives  lost  on  the  enterprise  will  never 
be  known,  but  is  far  greater  than  that  of  many 
wars  which  have  received  a  conspicuous  notice  on 
the  historical  page.  The  collapse  of  the  De- 
Lesseps  undertaking  was  followed  by  the  organ- 
ization of  the  New  Canal  Company,  upon  which 
followed  a  chapter  of  bargainings  and  treaties 


220  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

and  negotiations  and  bickerings  with  the  object 
of  selling  out  the  rights  and  holdings  of  the  com- 
pany to  the  highest  bidder.  In  all  of  these  the 
Panama  Railroad  figured  very  largely,  and  the 
Republic  of  Colombia  kept  a  watchful  eye  on 
the  main  chance  for  herself. 

The  story  of  President  Roosevelt's  large  part 
in  the  American  undertaking  of  the  independence 
of  Panama  and  the  organization  of  the  American 
effort  is  one  of  the  romances  of  American  history. 
On  November  18,  1903,  Washington  recognized 
the  new  Republic  of  Panama,  and  later  paid 
$10,000,000  for  the  Canal  Zone  and  entered  into 
a  treaty  guaranteeing  the  peace  and  perpetuity 
of  the  Isthmian  Republic.  Thus  ended  a  half- 
century  of  riot  and  revolution  and  rebellion  which 
was  stated  to  have  included  fifty-three  revolu- 
tions in  fifty-seven  years.  Relations  between  the 
early  officials  on  the  Canal  Zone  and  the  rulers  of 
Panama  were  not  ideal;  some  of  the  Americans 
seemed  to  have  had  a  real  genius  for  offending 
the  finer  sensibilities  of  the  natives. 

The  beginning  of  the  American  attempt  is  not 
a  chapter  of  which  anybody  is  very  proud.  The 
effort  to  dig  the  Canal  from  Washington  under 
a  mass  of  red  tape  which  tied  the  hands  of  the  men 
on  the  Isthmus  proved  an  impossible  undertak- 
ing. The  President  succeeded  in  effecting  a  reor- 
ganization which  helped  some,  but  not  until  all 
red  tape  was  cut  and  Army  engineers  were  put 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          221 

in  charge,  was  anything  like  real  efficiency  ob- 
tained. Three  great  engineers  were  connected 
with  the  work — Wallace,  Stevens,  and  Goethals 
—and  to  each  of  these  belongs  credit  for  the  very 
high  order  of  work  done.  While  the  man  who 
finished  the  job  bears  the  outstanding  name  in 
connection  with  the  Canal,  without  exception 
the  engineers  who  worked  under  the  first  two  men 
speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  the  work  that  they 
accomplished. 

No  snapshot  resume  of  the  building  days,  nor 
tourist  instantaneous  exposure  of  visits  can  re- 
veal, nor  appreciate,  the  big  problems  that  con- 
fronted the  engineers.  It  all  looks  easy  enough 
now,  but  it  was  very  different  then. 

Good  health  on  the  Canal  Zone  seems  a  very 
simple  matter  now,  and  such  it  is ;  but  when  the 
doctors  and  sanitary  engineers  began  work  it  was 
an  exceedingly  serious  situation  that  they  under- 
took to  cure,  and  without  their  work  there  could 
be  no  Canal  to-day.  The  complete  elimination 
of  the  last  case  of  yellow  fever  has  made  entirely 
harmless  the  mosquito  carriers  where  they  occa- 
sionally appear  on  the  Isthmus.  The  best  test  of 
the  work  of  the  Sanitary  Department  is  the  fact 
that  the  Zone  and  terminal  cities  have  remained 
clean  and  that  there  is  no  indication  of  relapse. 
Before  work  could  begin,  a  whole  system  of  trans- 
portation had  to  be  organized,  a  steamer  line  put 
into  operation,  and  an  immense  purchasing  de- 


222  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

partment  gotten  into  working  order.  Before 
men  could  be  brought  to  the  Isthmus  to  do  the 
work  some  provision  had  to  be  made  for  housing 
and  feeding,  and  the  question  of  materials,  sup- 
plies, food,  fuel,  recreation,  and  education  was  no 
small  matter. 

To  dig  the  Canal  required  not  only  engineers 
and  officials,  but  an  army  of  common  laborers, 
and  the  labor  question  was  not  easy.  The  Pan- 
amanian might  have  dug  the  Canal,  but  he  did 
not  do  it ;  he  did  not  want  to  do  it,  and  the  prob- 
ability is  that  he  never  could  have  done  it.  Em- 
ployers on  the  Zone  refused  to  hire  Panamanians 
for  Canal  work. 

Chinese  coolies  might  have  been  imported  from 
Canton  or  Amoy,  but  Panama  is  a  long  way  from 
southern  China  and  still  further  from  India,  and 
no  intelligent  man  ever  seriously  proposed  im- 
porting Hindus.  If  enough  Panamanian  In- 
dians could  have  been  found,  they  might  have 
done  the  work,  but  the  native  Indian  is  a  very  un- 
certain and  fragmentary  factor  of  life  on  the 
Isthmus. 

At  this  juncture  the  West  Indian  filled  the 
breach  and  supplied  the  labor  for  the  job.  Up  to 
forty-five  thousand  of  them  were  employed  at  one 
time,  and  with  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  human 
tide  between  the  Isthmus  and  the  Caribbean 
Islands  several  times  that  number  came  to  the 
Isthmus.  Somebody  else  might  have  supplied 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          223 

the  labor,  but  the  fact  is  West  Indian  did  do 
the  work,  and  at  least  deserves  proper  recognition 
therefor. 

The  problems  of  suitable  construction  machin- 
ery were  in  a  way  simple.  Given  a  definite  task, 
it  remained  to  devise  mechanical  means  to  meet 
the  conditions.  In  practice,  however,  the  case 
was  not  so  simple  as  this  sounds,  and  some  very 
difficult  knots  were  untangled  before  the  work 
was  well  under  way.  Some  of  the  old  French 
machinery  was  used  clear  through  the  construc- 
tion period,  but  the  jungle  was  sown  with  scrap 
iron  of  the  old  French  equipment  that  has  only 
recently  been  removed. 

The  electrical  and  mechanical  equipment  for 
the  operation  of  the  locks  is  a  marvel  of  adapta- 
tion and  invention  and  nothing  short  of  a  tech- 
nical description  can  do  the  subject  justice.  To 
see  the  locks  in  operation  is  to  wonder  at  the  me- 
chanical contrivances  which  seem  almost  intelli- 
gent, and  some  of  the  design  work  is  the  result  of 
real  genius. 

Of  engineering  problems,  proper,  it  is  better 
to  let  the  engineer  speak  with  intelligence,  but 
any  layman  can  stand  on  Gold  Hill  and  by  vigor- 
ous use  of  the  imagination  see  something  of  the 
tremendous  work  that  has  been  done  since  the 
first  shovelful  of  earth  was  turned  on  that  New 
Year's  Day  in  1880.  Whether  the  French  engi- 
neers anticipated  landslides  at  Culebra  is  not 


224  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

clear,  but  the  American  engineers  knew  from  the 
start  that,  the  porous  soil  would  cave  in  more  or 
less  at  that  point.  What  it  actually  did  do  sur- 
passed the  expectations  of  those  who  surveyed  the 
work.  When  the  banks  began  to  cave  north  of 
Gold  Hill  the  surrounding  country  got  the  idea 
and  followed  suit  so  fast  that  it  looked  as  though 
the  ten-mile  strip  would  all  be  needed. 


GATUN  SPILLWAY,  KEY  TO  THE  CANAL 

I  spent  a  day  in  the  big  cut  in  January,  1917, 
and  noted  the  rapid  crumble  of  the  historic  bank 
at  this  troubled  point.  The  following  night  the 
channel  filled  up  for  a  length  of  eight  hundred 
feet  and  shipping  was  suspended.  Then  the 
dredgers  went  at  it  hammer  and  tongs,  and  in 
three  days  and  nights  they  had  cleared  a  channel 
through  that  enormous  mass  of  material  and  on 
the  fourth  day  ships  were  again  passing  in  safety. 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          225 

It  was  a  fine  illustration  of  the  way  dirt  was  made 
to  fly  in  the  old  days. 

Some  otherwise  intelligent  people  have  utterly 
failed  to  comprehend  the  size  of  the  task  involved 
in  the  mere  digging  of  the  Canal.  One  high  offi- 
cial advocated  the  cure  of  slides  by  digging  back 
a  mile  on  each  side  of  the  bank.  Verily,  he  knew 
not  what  he  said,  and  a  member  of  Congress  on 
visiting  the  Canal  reported  that  he  was  still  in 
favor  of  a  sea-level  route.  Competent  engineers 
assured  him  that  to  construct  a  sea-level  canal 
from  ocean  to  ocean  would  require  at  least  fifty 
years  of  continuous  labor.  The  wisdom  of  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's  ideas  has  been  forever  vindi- 
cated by  experience.  Some  practical  man  has 
said  that  no  man  can  know  how  great  is  the  task 
of  making  the  earth  until  he  tries  to  move  a  little 
of  it.  The  congressman  needed  a  little  pick-and- 
shovel  experience. 

Administrative  problems  are  not  especially 
acute  on  the  Zone,  but  the  completed  task  gives 
room  for  a  world  of  appreciation  of  the  general 
efficiency  with  which  the  whole  work  was  carried 
out,  and  the  smooth-running  machinery  of  the  ex- 
ecutive to-day  attests  the  thoroughness  with 
which  the  departmental  system  was  organized 
and  initiated  by  the  men  whose  names  will  always 
be  associated  with  the  work.  The  task  of  operat- 
ing the  Canal  to-day  would  not  be  very  great, 
nor  would  it  require  a  very  large  army  of  em- 


226  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

ployees,  but  without  any  preconceived  plan  vari- 
ous related  industries  to  the  number  of  six  or 
seven  have  grown  up  about  the  Canal  administra- 
tion and  operation,  and  the  Canal  Zone  govern- 
ment to-day  is  doing  a  number  of  things  never 
contemplated  in  the  original  plans.  The  rout- 
ing of  ships  is  directly  connected  with  the  coal 
supply,  and  a  great  coaling  plant  stands  at  Cris- 
tobal. A  large  cold  storage  plant  makes  possible 
the  supplying  of  refrigerated  goods  to  shipping 
countries.  While  the  trans-shipping  business  at 
Colon  is  yet  in  its  infancy,  the  docks  there  are 
already  a  very  considerable  factor  in  Canal  activ- 
ities. Sanitation  and  public  health,  of  course, 
require  a  trained  force  of  specialists.  The  Canal 
employees  must  eat,  and  the  commissary  hotel 
and  restaurant  are  a  very  important  branch  of 
the  service.  The  quartermaster  looks  after  the 
housing  problem,  and  where  there  are  five  thou- 
sand Americans,  most  of  them  living  with  fam- 
ilies, the  educational  problem  necessitates  a  de- 
partment by  itself.  The  Balboa  Docks  employ 
hundreds  of  men  at  high  wages. 

In  connection  with  the  food  problem  come  the 
large  farming  operations  conducted  on  the  Canal 
Zone.  An  army  of  laborers  is  employed,  and  the 
proceeds  of  the  plantations  and  poultry  yards  is 
sold  through  the  commissary's  stores. 

From  the  beginning  much  attention  has  been 
paid  to  the  social  life  and  recreation  needs  of  these 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          227 

exiles  from  home.  A  chain  of  government  club- 
houses runs  across  the  Isthmus,  one  in  each  town, 
where  reading  rooms,  games,  gymnasiums,  re- 
freshment counters,  discussion  clubs,  concerts, 
dances,  cigar  stores,  and  motion-picture  pro- 
grams are  provided  for  young  and  old.  During 
the  dry  season  baseball  is  widely  indulged  in  and 
plays  an  important  part  in  the  social  and  recrea- 
tional life  of  the  Zone. 

Next  to  the  "spotless  town" 
features  of  the  Zone  the  vis- 
itor is  impressed  by  the  smooth- 
running  system  through  which 
everything  is  done.  There  may 
be  officials  who  are  grouchy  and 
will  not  take  time  to  aswer  ques- 
tions, but  I  have  never  met  one. 
The  routine  of  operation  and 
maintenance  has  succeeded  the 
drive  of  construction  days  when 
Governor  Goethals  established 
the  famous  open  house  on  Sun- 
day morning  and  received  any- 


CKISTOBAL    STREETS 


228  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

body  who  had  anything  to  say  to  him.  The  last 
black  laborer  could  see  the  governor  if  he  wished, 
and  many  of  them  did  so.  The  public-be-hanged 
attitude  of  occasional  small  executives  in  the 
States  is  delightfully  absent.  The  machinery  of 
administration  outwardly  works  as  smoothly  as 
do  the  great  gates  of  the  locks.  On  the  inner 
circle  there  are,  of  course,  problems  and  some- 
times personalities,  but  they  rarely  escape  from 
the  closets  where  ghosts  are  supposed  to  remain. 


FAT    CATTLE    OF    COCLI3 

When  the  visitor  begins  to  look  about  and 
beyond  the  Canal  he  becomes  aware  of  the  con- 
quered wilderness.  Where  once  was  dense  and 
impassable  jungle  now  sweep  smooth  and  ver- 
dant hills.  One-time  fever  swamps  are  now 
drained  meadows,  and  the  never-failing  drip  from 
the  sanitary  oil  barrel  induces  a  very  high  mortal- 
ity among  the  mosquitoes.  Broad  acres  of  rich 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          229 

jungle  lands  have  been  cleared  and  are  now  model 
farms.  Over  the  grassgrown  hills  wander  thou- 
sands of  fat  cattle,  increasing  in  number  every 
year.  The  jungle  of  the  Canal  Zone  is  a  very 
tame  and  conquered  jungle.  The  real  article  lies 
beyond  the  line  where  there  is  plenty. 

It  was  once  thought  that  the  best  thing  to  do 
with  the  jungle  was  to  let  it  run  wild  after  its 
kind,  as  a  barrier  to  invasion.  A  little  experi- 
menting proved  that  an  army  could  cut  its  way 
through  the  jungle  so  fast  that  the  brush  was 
nothing  more  than  a  screen  for  the  advance  of  the 
enemy. 

If  the  visitor  stays  long  enough  and  gets  close 
enough,  he  will  learn  of  things  which  might  have 
been  done  differently  on  a  second  trial,  but  regu- 
lation and  adjustment  have  pretty  well  cleared 
up  the  points  in  question,  and,  taking  it  all 
through,  the  Canal  is  as  satisfactory  and  com- 
plete a  job  as  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  Americans  who  live  on  the  Zone  are  an  in- 
teresting social  experiment  without  knowing  it. 
They  form  one  of  the  unique  communities  of  the 
world.  Somebody  has  said  that  the  Zone  situa- 
tion is  described  by  the  word  "suburban,"  but  that 
does  not  express  it.  Every  man  lives  in  a  govern- 
ment-furnished house,  rent  free.  Free  also  is  his 
electric  light  and  a  ration  of  fuel  for  cooking. 
Ice  is  so  cheap  that  it  is  practically  free.  He 
buys  everything  that  he  eats  and  wears  in  the 


230  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

commissary's  stores,  where  goods  are  sold  to  him 
at  cost.  So  they  are — at  what  they  cost  him. 
Prices  now  do  not  differ  materially  from  retail 
figures  in  the  States  on  the  same  goods.  If 
housekeeping  tires,  there  are  the  commissary 
restaurants,  clean  and  wholesome,  always  avail- 
able for  good  meals  at  reasonable  prices.  Good 
schools  are  furnished  free,  of  course,  for  the  chil- 
dren. There  is  a  free  dispensary  where  all  minor 
ailments  are  treated  and  medicine  furnished  free. 
The  government  hospitals  are  among  the  best  in 
the  world,  and  employees'  rates  are  less  than  the 
cost  of  living  at  home.  The  Zone  man  is  under 
Civil  Service  rules,  receives  a  generous  vacation, 
with  a  steamer  rate  to  New  York  so  low  that  it 
covers  little  more  than  his  meals  en  route.  The 
scale  of  his  wages  is  based  on  an  increase  of 
twenty  per  cent  over  the  pay  for  the  same  class  of 
service  in  the  United  States.  Cheap  household 
service  abounds  and  is  about  as  satisfactory  as 
household  service  is  anywhere.  If  he  is  lonesome, 
the  government  clubhouse,  with  its  community 
life,  good  recreation,  and  well-stocked  reading 
room,  is  always  open  to  him  practically  without 
cost ;  and  if  he  gets  tired  of  the  Zone,  there  is  al- 
ways Panama  and  the  interior  country  with  its 
never-failing  places  of  interest  and  exploration. 

Here  are  all  the  advantages  of  the  socialized 
state  and  no  workingmen  or  clerks  in  all  the 
world  are  so  well  paid,  or  taken  care  of,  as  these 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


231 


Americans  on  the  Zone.  It  is  a  fine,  efficient 
piece  of  provision  for  the  men  who  do  the  work. 
Therefore  the  Zone  dweller  should  be  a  satisfied 
and  happy  man,  dreading  nothing  but  the  day 
when  he  must  return  to  the  States. 

In  practice,  however,  the  American  on  the 
Canal  Zone  is  not  so  contented  as  the  external 
features  of  his  lot  would  lead  one  to  suppose. 
There  is  an  undercurrent  of  petty  complaint, 
directed  at  everything  in  general,  and  indicative 
of  a  state  of  mind  as  much  as  of  actual  evils  exist- 


ENCHANTED    ISLANDS    IN    QATUN   LAKE 

ent.  These  complaints  are  the  results  of  too 
much  community  life  without  room  for  individual 
ownership  or  initiative.  The  followers  of  Bel- 
lamy should  come  to  the  Zone  and  stay  long 
enough  to  get  a  few  pointers. 

The  trouble  is  that  there  is  necessarily  much 
of  uniformity  of  housing,  commissary,  social,  and 
living  conditions.  The  American  people  are, 
after  all,  strong  individualists,  and  every  man 


232  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

likes  to  have  something  that  is  distinctively  his 
own. 

When  people  work  all  day  together,  play  ball 
together  till  meal  time,  all  eat  the  same  things  at 
the  same  price  from  the  same  store,  on  exactly 
similar  tables,  with  identical  dishes ;  when  they  go 
to  the  movies  together  and  walk  home  down  the 
same  street  together  and  sleep  in  houses  and  beds 
all  alike,  they  sometimes  develop  cases  of  nerves. 

On  the  testimony  of  one  of  the  efficient  medical 
men  of  the  Zone  a  lot  of  nervousness  disappeared 
when  war  work  absorbed  the  attention  and  en- 
ergies of  the  patriotic  Americans,  who  enthusi- 
astically devoted  their  spare  time  to  various  forms 
of  win-the-war  industry. 

The  problem  of  raising  children  on  the  Zone  is 
admittedly  beset  with  difficulties.  Health  condi- 
tions are  good  enough,  but  many  people  are 
prone  to  regard  life  on  the  Zone  as  a  general  va- 
cation from  the  standards  and  disciplines  of  the 
homeland,  and  children  are  often  allowed  to  do 
very  much  as  they  please.  Many  families  employ 
a  servant,  and  there  is  no  economic  need  for  chil- 
dren doing  any  useful  act  of  work.  An  unusual 
degree  of  irresponsibility  results.  "It  will  be 
time  enough  to  correct  them  when  we  get  back  to 
the  States,"  is  a  common  remark. 

Of  course  there  are  many  families  where  the 
highest  ideals  are  earnestly  maintained,  and  no 
more  faithful  fathers  and  mothers  may  be  found 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL          233 

anywhere  than  here  in  this  colony  of  voluntary 
exiles.  But  American  life  on  the  Canal  Zone  is 
at  present  apt  to  be  regarded  more  as  a  vacation 
experience  than  as  a  serious  attempt  to  face  the 
whole  problem  of  living. 

Moral  and  religious  safeguards  are  not  absent. 
The  early  plan  of  providing  government-paid 
chaplains  ended  with  construction  days,  and 
under  the  leadership  of  a  group  of  farsighted 
laymen  the  Union  Church  of  the  Canal  Zone  was 
organized  in  February,  1914.  All  Protestant  de- 
nominations except  two  now  cooperate  with  this 
piece  of  ecclesiastical  statesmanship.  A  central- 
ized organization  maintains  work  in  all  the  civil- 
ian "gold"  towns  along  the  Canal,  employing 
four  pastors,  who  must  be  ordained  men  of  evan- 
gelical churches.  This  Union  Church  does  not 
regard  itself  as  a  denomination  but  as  a  federa- 
tion for  Christian  service.  No  attempt  is  made  to 
establish  a  doctrinal  position,  and  members  are 
not  asked  to  sever  their  relations  with  their  home 
churches.  The  excellent  results  attained  under 
this  management  speak  volumes  for  the  wisdom 
of  the  plan  and  the  earnestness  and  ability  of  the 
men  who  have  fostered  the  enterprise  from  the 
start.  The  Union  Church  has  devoted  its  benevo- 
lent moneys  to  opening  a  mission  station  at  David 
in  Western  Panama,  in  cooperation  with  the 
Panama  Mission  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church. 


234  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Morally,  the  Canal  Zone  is  as  clean  as  any 
place  on  earth.  The  improvement  of  moral  con- 
ditions in  Colon  and  Panama  has  done  much  to 
make  the  lives  of  Americans  wholesome  and  to 
decrease  the  dangers  to  childhood  that  have  ex- 
isted in  the  past.  There  will  always  be  Amer- 
icans on  the  Canal  Zone,  and  a  few  of  them  will 
exercise  the  great  American  prerogative  of  speak- 
ing their  minds,  but  most  of  them  will  be  better 
off  here  than  at  any  other  time  in  their  lives. 


CHAPTER  XV 
PROWLING  INTO  THE  FUTURE 

MANY  prophets  have  taken  in  hand  to  tell  us 
what  the  Panama  Canal  is  to  bring  forth  in  its 
commercial,  social,  political,  geographical,  and 
educational  results  for  the  world.  Probably  no 
world-event  has  ever  had  so  much  advance  adver- 
tising as  this  much  written-up  achievement. 
Great  as  is  the  Canal,  it  came  near  being  out- 
shone in  brilliancy  by  the  publicity  material  sent 
out  by  journalists  who  found  the  subject  to  be 
profitable  copy. 

In  the  main,  the  prophets  were  right.  The 
world  war  postponed  the  arrival  of  some  of  the 
promised  results,  but  it  also  enlarged  the  im- 
portance of  the  Canal  and  assured  more  extensive 
and  far-reaching  effects  than  could  have  been 
prophesied  before  the  war  began.  It  is  now  cer- 
tain that  we  are  to  have  a  new  and  more  closely 
united  America  than  was  formerly  possible,  and 
that  the  drawing  together  of  the  two  Americas 
has  been  greatly  accelerated  by  the  world  vindica- 
tion of  democracy.  In  this  closer  brotherhood 
of  all  Americans  the  Canal  will  play  a  large  and 
important  part. 

Just  how  far  the  stream  of  influences  will  flow 

235 


236  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

cannot  be  told,  but  it  is  within  the  moderate  possi- 
bilities to  say  that  every  country  in  the  world  will 
be  affected  by  the  changes  due  to  the  new  water- 
way. The  French  originators  of  the  first  project 
saw  an  opportunity  for  commercial  investment 
and  hoped  to  make  good  dividends  from  the  ven- 
ture. They  did  not  much  concern  themselves 
with  by-products.  The  Americans  who  planned 
and  pushed  and  persevered  until  the  work  was 
again  begun  were  thinking  of  commercial  and 
naval  results,  evident  enough,  but  they  could  not 
have  foreseen  the  far  consequences  to  follow,  nor 
could  they  have  known  that  on  the  Canal  Zone 
five  or  six  related  industries  were  to  spring  up 
under  management  of  the  Canal  Commission.  It 
is  now  about  as  difficult  to  predict  the  world-wide 
effects  of  the  Canal  factor  as  it  would  have  been 
in  1903  to  foresee  the  related  industries  of  the 
present  situation. 

Shortening  of  trade  routes  is  the  first  and  obvi- 
ous consideration.  Everything  else  grows  out  of 
the  elimination  of  distances  by  the  Canal  cut-off. 
It  requires  no  prophetic  gift  to  take  the  figures 
from  any  good  map  and  ascertain  that  from  New 
York  to  San  Francisco  via  Magellan  is  13,135 
miles,  whereas  via  Panama  it  is  5,262 — a  saving 
of  7,873  miles,  or  a  month  of  steady  steaming. 
Between  New  York  and  Honolulu  there  is  a  sav- 
ing of  6,610  miles ;  and  Yokohama  is  2,768  miles 
nearer  New  York  via  Panama  than  by  the  Suez 


INTO  THE  FUTURE 


237 


route.    The  list  of  distances  saved  may  be  indefi- 
nitely extended. 

If  there  were  no  results  other  than  the  saving 
of  a  week  or  a  month  of 
steamer  time,  the  Canal 
would  be  cheap  at  several 
times  its  price.  But  these 
changes  in  steamer  sched- 
ules and  prices  introduce 
an  entirely  new  set  of  re- 
actions into  the  commer- 
cial and  social  world,  and 
this  is  where  the  interest- 
ing problems  arise.  Left 
to  herself,  nature  tends  to 
establish  a  balance  of  flora 
or  fauna  in  any  locality. 
Introduce  a  new  plant  or 
animal  or  microbe  and  all 
sorts  of  readjustments 
begin  at  once,  and  before 
a  new  balance  is  estab- 
lished almost  anything 
may  happen.  Commerce 
finds  its  level  in  much  the 
same  way  and  by  the  same  law.  Introduce  a 
radical  disturbance,  like  the  Panama  short-cut, 
and  everything  begins  to  happen.  Add  the  direct 
and  indirect  results  of  the  war  with  its  weaken- 
ing of  German  influence  and  strengthening  of 


PANAMA  PUBLIC  WATER  WORKS, 
INTERIOR    COUNTRY 


238  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

inter- American  interests,  and  we  may  have  prac- 
tically a  new  world  before  a  new  balance  is  estab- 
lished. 

Commercial  interests  naturally  forge  to  the 
front  in  any  discussion  of  canal  results.  So  ably 
have  these  matters  been  discussed  by  experts  that 
any  repetition  of  figures  and  industries  here 
would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  work. 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  world  war  ren- 
dered obsolete  our  former  ideas  regarding  trade 
between  the  United  States  and  Spanish- America. 
Whether  the  extensive  German  political-com- 
mercial machine  that  covered  all  Latin- America 
can  regain  its  prestige  in  fifty  years  to  come  re- 
mains to  be  seen,  but  it  is  certain  that  for  a  gen- 
eration following  the  defeat  of  Germany  by  the 
free  nations  of  the  world  North  America  will 
have  a  magnificent  opportunity  to  enter  South 
American  trade  on  very  advantageous  terms. 
And  the  great  bulk  of  the  west-coast  trade  will 
pass  through  the  Canal  on  its  way  to  Gulf  and 
Atlantic  ports,  as  well  as  to  Europe. 

The  completion  of  the  Panama  Canal  may  be 
set  down  as  the  date  of  the  discovery  of  Latin- 
America  by  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Previous  to  that  date  the  North  Americans  were 
aware  enough  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  but  al- 
most unaware  of  the  lives  and  interests  of  the 
nations  living  south  of  the  Rio  Grande  River. 
With  the  opening  of  the  Canal  the  North  Amer- 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  239 

icans  began  thinking  south,  and  so  far  as  the  pro- 
cess has  gone  it  has  been  very  informing.  Once 
the  war  is  out  of  the  way,  the  process  will  be 
greatly  accelerated.  With  uninterrupted  com- 
mercial conditions,  five  years  of  the  expanded  life 
due  to  the  Canal  will  be  about  equal  to  sending 
the  whole  people  back  to  school  for  a  year.  The 
cultural  and  geographical  values  of  this  new  zone 
of  thinking  have  hardly  been  felt  as  yet,  but  now 
that  the  attention  of  the  world  is  released  from 
the  battlefields  of  Europe  and  the  enormous  so- 
cial and  financial  problems  arising  from  the  ex- 
pense of  making  the  world  decent  once  for  all,  the 
tide  of  interest  is  again  turning  southward  along 
the  shores  of  our  own  great  oceans  to  the  mighty 
events  that  await  us  there. 

Spanish-America  has  twelve  republics  and 
eight  thousand  miles  of  coast  line  on  the  Pacific 
ocean.  The  United  States  has  a  Pacific  Coast  of 
about  fifteen  hundred  miles.  The  eight  thou- 
sand miles  marks  the  western  boundaries  of 
lands  enormously  rich  in  things  that  the  world 
needs,  but  exceedingly  poor  in  finished  products 
or  adequate  growth.  Probably  no  country  on 
earth  shows  a  wider  margin  to-day  between  pres- 
ent raw  resources  and  possible  high  developments 
than  these  same  twelve  Spanish-speaking  coun- 
tries. The  only  analogy  that  bears  on  the  case  is 
that  of  the  rapid  and  extensive  advancement  of 
the  Pacific  States  after  the  completion  of  the 


240  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

transcontinental  railroads.  There  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  a  similar  record  of  progress  awaits  the 
west  coast  of  South  America. 

The  combined  foreign  trade  of  the  west-coast 
republics  before  the  war  reached  the  very  respect- 
able total  of  nearly  one  billion  of  gold  dollars  in 
a  single  year.  There  are  commercial  prophets 
who  believe  that  within  ten  years  from  the  com- 
pletion of  demobilization  this  volume  of  trade 
may  be  doubled.  This  means  new  markets,  new 
industries,  new  development  of  mines,  markets, 
manufactures,  and  agriculture,  new  colonization 
projects  and  a  score  of  other  unpredictable  re- 
sults. No  less  an  authority  than  Mr.  John  L. 
Barrett  says,  "I  believe  that  the  Panama  Canal 
will  initiate  in  all  South  American  countries  a 
genuine  movement  which  will  have  a  most  im- 
portant bearing  on  the  commerce  and  civilization 
of  the  world." 

An  immense  amount  of  iron  lies  buried  in  the 
mountains  of  the  west  coast.  Not  much  has  ever 
been  done  about  it.  But  enormous  quantities  of 
ore  have  been  destroyed  by  the  processes  of  war, 
and  South  American  iron  may  come  to  high 
values  sooner  than  its  owners  have  supposed. 

It  is  only  recently  that  consideration  has  been 
given  to  the  idea  of  establishing  in  connection 
with  the  Canal  a  great  commercial  trans-ship- 
ping point.  Colon  is  yet  a  little  town,  mostly 
West  Indian  to-day,  but  already  the  Cristobal 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  241 

docks  are  piled  high  with  South  American  pro- 
ducts awaiting  reshipment.  The  proposed  estab- 
lishment of  a  free  port  at  Colon  may  yet  result  in 
a  western  Hongkong  where  the  commerce  of  the 
seven  seas  comes  together  to  be  distributed  to  the 
five  continents.  Whatever  might  have  been  the 
results  had  there  been  no  war,  it  is  now  sure  that 
everything  that  happens  in  South  America  has 
henceforth  a  very  definite  significance  for  the 
United  States.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  we  are 
out  of  our  exclusive  dooryard  and  will  have  to 
take  our  place  on  the  great  national  street  named 
America  and  play  the  game  with  our  neighbors. 

For  decades  past  Central  America  has  been  an 
unknown  land  to  the  United  States.  We  have 
contentedly  supposed  that  the  only  crop  was  that 
of  revolutions  and  the  only  resources  a  few 
jungle  fruits.  But  at  last  we  are  discovering 
Central  America,  and  some  of  us  are  astonished 
to  there  find  vast  areas,  fertile  soils,  varied  and 
valuable  products,  intelligent  peoples,  a  volume 
of  commerce  and  climate  fit  for  Eden.  We  knew 
little  and  cared  less  about  Guatemala,  Salvador, 
Honduras,  Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica,  and  Panama ; 
and  since  the  bulk  of  trade  of  these  lands  was  with 
Europe,  they  paid  little  attention  to  us.  Why 
should  they  do  otherwise? 

The  presence  of  the  United  States  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  introduces  a  new  factor  into 
the  American  tropics.  It  looks  very  small  and 


242  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 


insignificant,  that  little  ten-mile  strip  with  the  in- 
fluence in  Panamanian  affairs,  but  how  far  the 
North  American  influence  is  going  to  reach  out 
beyond  the  Zone  limits  cannot  be  known.  Every- 
body is  watching  the  results  for  revolution-proof, 

permanently  peaceful 
Panama,  and  there  are 
other  countries  not  far 
away  where  there  are 
people  who  are  pray- 
ing for  something  like 
it,  or  just-as-good,  for 
themselves.  Doubtless 
their  prayers  will  not 
be  answered  directly 
but  tjie  influence  of 
this  leaven  may  work 
out  into  a  wide  circle 
and  instigate  move- 
ments that  we  have 
not  counted  upon. 

But      the      largest 
factor    in    the     new 

American  situation  grows  out  of  the  new  world- 
emphasis  on  the  Golden  Rule.  At  last  the  world 
understands  as  never  before  how  finally  determin- 
ative is  the  moral  and  spiritual  factor  in  all  human 
progress.  We  may  never  know  just  how  much 
the  world  had  paid  to  clear  away  the  rubbish  of 
autocracy  and  found  the  new  age  on  the  principle 


A    JUNGLE    CATHEDRAL 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  243 

of  a  square  deal  for  great  and  small ;  but  the  deed 
is  done,  and  henceforth  the  one  compelling  sanc- 
tion in  all  life  must  be  the  essential  principle  for 
which  the  Allies  have  spent  their  treasure  and 
spilled  their  blood.  The  new  internationalism 
will  underlie  all  further  development  of  relations 
between  the  two  Americas,  which  opens  a  new 
world  of  social  discovery  and  growth  as  fascinat- 
ing as  that  which  Columbus  found  in  the  physical 
surface  of  the  globe. 

The  greater  results  of  the  closer  fellowship  c  f 
North  and  South  America  will  be  registered  in 
the  realms  of  mind  and  spirit.  Trade  balances 
and  stock  dividends  there  will  be,  but  back  of  i  ad 
beyond  these  will  rise  the  new  American  spirit, 
uniting  the  finest  courtesy  and  artistic  tempera- 
ment of  the  Latin  with  the  practical  initiative  and 
efficient  vigor  of  the  blend  of  blood  in  the  United 
States.  There  is  no  gulf,  great  or  small,  fixed 
between  the  two  races.  Each  has  something  that 
the  other  needs,  and  close  fellowship  will  result  in 
new  race  sympathy  and  mutual  advantage. 

To  ignore  this  basis  of  development  is  to  forget 
that  cold  commercialism  will  in  time  chill  the 
fervor  of  friendships  and  alienate  the  growing 
sympathy  of  nations.  If  we  are  to  have  no  inter- 
est in  our  neighbors  other  than  the  profits  we  may 
make  from  their  trade,  we  will  soon  cease  to  be 
friends  and  become  bitter  rivals  at  the  big  game 
of  getting  all  we  can. 


244  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

It  takes  two  to  play  the  game  of  reciprocal 
commercial  success.  If  we  succeed  on  the  great 
international  chess  board,  it  will  be  not  by 
shrewd  defeat  of  our  friends  but  by  the  coming 
to  maturity  of  a  high  sense  of  honor  and  fair  play 
on  both  sides.  It  is  not  one  of  us  against  the 
other,  but  both  of  us  together  against  the  normal 
difficulties  of  growth  and  production. 

One  of  the  native  leaders  of  Latin- American 
life  has  explained  that  South  America  was  un- 
fortunate in  the  character  of  the  founders  of  her 
national  institutions.  Adventurers,  explorers  for 
gain,  greedy  conquistadores  made  the  beginnings 
here,  and  the  moral  foundations  were  laid  by  re- 
ligious leaders  who  traveled  with  pirates  and 
plunderers  and  officially  blessed  their  every  act 
of  crime.  And  from  the  beginning  until  now  the 
type  of  religion  that  has  prevailed  in  Latin- 
America  has  not  assisted  in  the  building  up  of 
free  institutions,  nor  has  it  produced  a  high 
morality  among  the  people. 

The  South  American  struggle  for  self-govern- 
ment and  free  ideals  has  been  a  long,  bloody,  and 
heroic  grapple  with  the  reactionary  and  despotic 
forces  brought  over  from  mediaeval  Europe. 
Men  like  San  Martin  and  Bolivar  deserve  high 
honor  for  their  work  in  breaking  the  bondage  that 
held  all  life  helpless.  One  by  one  the  colonies 
threw  off  their  political  yokes  and  became  repub- 
lics, every  one  of  them,  in  theory,  modeled  after 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  245 

the  United  States.  The  passion  of  the  South 
American  patriot  has  been  home-rule,  but,  un- 
fortunately, home-rule  has  not  always  meant  self- 
government.  That  is  quite  a  different  matter. 
The  overthrow  of  European  despotisms  was  fol- 
lowed by  innumerable  internal  revolutions. 
Panama  had  no  monopoly  on  internal  dissensions, 
and  makes  no  claim  that  her  fifty-three  revolu- 
tions in  fifty-seven  years  is  the  high-water  mark 
of  insurrections  for  South  or  Central  America. 

In  short,  the  mere  overthrow  of  a  despotic  gov- 
ernment does  not  assure  stable  political  institu- 
tions nor  efficient  administration  of  public  affairs. 
Good  government  by  popular  sovereignty  is 
something  far  more  fundamental  than  a  matter  of 
printed  constitutions  or  shouting  "Viva  indepen- 
dencia!"  in  the  plazas.  Without  moral  responsi- 
bility and  free  consciences  there  can  never  be  a 
successful  democracy  on  earth. 

Free  institutions  and  free  consciences  are  win- 
ning out  in  South  America,  but  it  is  in  spite  of  the 
established  church  and  not  because  of  it.  It  is  not 
politically  a  question  of  religion  that  we  are  dis- 
cussing; it  is  a  matter  of  organized,  crafty,  and 
unscrupulous  opposition  to  every  movement  that 
makes  for  the  development  of  democracy  in 
South  America.  And  since  the  establishment  of 
a  better  understanding  and  closer  fellowship  be- 
tween the  two  continents  depends  upon  this  very 
basis  of  free  and  morally  responsible  social  and 


246  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

political  leaders,  the  question  is  most  vital. 
Everywhere  there  are  a  few  intelligent,  earnest 
men  working  away  patiently  and  steadily  at  the 
problem  of  making  South  America  democratic  by 
making  her  people  free  to  adopt  with  intelligence 
democratic  institutions.  One  by  one  the  nations 
have  declared  for  freedom  of  worship  and  con- 
science, and,  last  of  all,  Peru,  robbed  and  de- 
spoiled Peru  of  the  conquest,  priest-ridden  and 
fanatical  Peru,  threw  off  the  galling  yoke  of  spir- 
itual bondage  and  divorced  church  and  state.  It 
seems  simple  enough  to  read  about  it  here,  but  at 
every  step  of  the  way  the  old  church  left  unturned 
no  stone  of  bigotry  and  intrigue  and  prejudice 
that  could  oppose  the  coming  of  the  modern  age 
to  Peru. 

The  supreme  tragedy  of  South  American  life 
has  been  that  the  light  that  has  been  in  her  has 
been  darkness.  The  spiritual  leaders  of  the 
people  have  themselves  opposed  all  progress 
toward  the  light.  Until  a  spiritual  leadership 
arises  that  will  at  least  support  aggressive  and 
progressive  movements  toward  freedom  and  de- 
mocracy and  moral  uplift,  slow  progress  will  be 
made.  And  this  matter  concerns  the  whole 
American  world.  These  are  now  our  next-door 
neighbors,  and  their  children  will  yet  be  playing 
in  our  yard. 

The  surprising  thing  is  that  so  much  has  al- 
ready been  accomplished  with  a  millstone  tied 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  247 

about  the  neck  of  all  progressive  movements.  No 
finer  tribute  could  be  paid  to  the  high  ideals  and 
large  posibilities  of  South  American  character 
than  a  recital  of  the  results  accomplished  by  her 
intellectual  and  moral  leaders  in  the  face  of 
enormous  handicaps. 

The  thinking  minds  of  these  southern  repub- 
lics are  almost  without  a  religion  to-day.  Long 
since  have  they  ceased  to  give  even  passive  assent 
to  the  demands  of  the  commercial  hierarchy  that 
claims  spiritual  monopoly  over  the  souls  of  man. 
Technical  outward  conformity  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  church  may  be  a  political  advantage 
or  a  domestic  convenience,  but  as  a  principle  of 
life  and  foundation  for  thought  the  intellectuals 
are  frankly  agnostic.  Man  after  man,  when  once 
confidence  is  gained,  will  state  that  they  do  not 
believe  in  the  claims  of  the  church,  and  usually 
have  ceased  to  believe  in  anything  at  all — and 
these  are  the  leaders  of  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
nations  with  which  we  are  to  deal.  And  what  are 
they  to  do?  No  adequate  substitute  do  they  know, 
and  until  an  open  Bible  and  a  living  Christ  take 
the  place  of  the  mummery  and  the  crucifix  we 
cannot  denounce  their  course.  Their  intellectual 
nonconformity  is  to  their  credit. 

The  final  problem  is  that  of  developing  people 
fit  to  live  with,  not  mental  and  moral  slaves  under 
the  dominance  of  superstition  and  intolerance. 
Back  of  the  cry  for  wider  and  richer  trade  routes 


248  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

is  the  need  of  responsible  men  with  whom  we  may 
transact  business.  More  than  shorter  shipping 
line,  we  need  better  shippers,  north  and  south. 
Underneath  vast  projects  of  material  advance- 
ment lie  all  the  social  and 
industrial  problems  of 
labor  and  wages  and  ex- 
change and  credits  and 
fidelity  to  contracts  and 
personal  honor.  And  above 
all  this  is  the  need  of  hon- 
esty and  efficiency  and  a 
personal  faith  in  a  living 
God  who  knows  and  cares 
and  takes  account  of  what 
we  do,  of  what  we  are,  and 
is  not  to  be  bought  off  by 
a  check  or  an  incantation. 

What  the  bigger  Amer- 
ican world  needs  is  bigger 
and  better  Americans, 
Latin  and  Saxon.  If  the 
influences  released  by  the 
Panama  Canal  help  to  pro- 
duce these  citizens  of  the 
larger  horizon,  one  of  the  greatest  services  pos- 
sible will  be  rendered  to  humanity.  But  the  larger 
horizon  is  conditioned  upon  a  larger  hope  that 
flows  from  the  mountain  of  the  more  abundant 
life.  And  the  Americans  of  the  northland  need 


SHOE-BILLS    ARE    SMALL 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  249 

the  broader  basis  and  vision  and  character  as 
much  as  their  southern  neighbors. 

What  really  has  the  Panama  Canal  to  do  with 
all  this  ?  Much  every  way,  but  chiefly  as  a  key  for 
the  unlocking  of  the  long-closed  doors  and  the 
releasing  of  long-latent  forces  of  international  re- 
lations in  trade  and  in  social  and  spiritual  life. 
Should  a  great  working  example  of  educational 
and  social  and  spiritual  life  be  established  at 
Panama  by  some  concerted  action  of  united 
Protestantism,  the  influence  of  the  principles 
there  promulgated  by  progressive  and  devout 
men  would  extend  over  a  very  wide  range  of 
Latin  life.  The  procession  that  now  passes 
through  Panama  will  be  doubled  and  trebled  in 
the  coming  decades,  and  what  is  planted  here  will 
spread  everywhere.  "I  saw  it  so  done  in  Pa- 
nama," may  become  the  precedent  for  almost 
anything  new,  whether  good  or  bad. 

The  influence  of  such  institutions  in  the  City  of 
Panama  will  be  more  far-reaching  than  if  located 
on  the  Canal  Zone.  The  Zone  is  wholly  North 
American;  Panama  is  thoroughly  Latin.  The 
institutions  of  the  Zone  are  those  of  the  United 
States  and  are  looked  on  somewhat  askance  by 
Latin  visitors.  It  is  all  very  great  and  imposing, 
but  it  is  so  radically  different  in  spirit  and 
method,  that  points  of  close  contact  are  hard  to 
establish.  Panama  is  a  different  matter.  What- 
ever is  done  there  by  Spanish-speaking  people 


250  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

will  be  visited  and  viewed  with  sympathetic  in- 
terest and  appreciation. 

The  heart  of  living  faith  that  is  to  impress  its 
throb  on  this  blood  stream  of  Latin  life  must  not 
be  an  imported  made-in-the- States  institution,  or 
it  will  be  but  an  ineffectual  flutter.  Likewise  it 
must  be  something  more  comprehensive  than  the 
traditional  schedule  of  occasional  gatherings  of 
the  faithful,  important  as  these  will  be.  To  do 
this  work  there  needs  be  an  interpretation  of  the 
Christian  message  that  will  relate  itself  to  a 
very  wide  circle  of  human  life  and  interests. 
Through  native  leadership  and  examples  must  be 
spoken  a  message  that  will  compel  attention  and 
challenge  the  minds  as  well  as  the  hearts  of  men. 
A  living  interpretation  of  a  spiritual  passion,  a 
social  service  program  with  a  heart  in  it,  an  edu- 
cational work  that  will  not  only  teach  the  cur- 
riculum but  develop  moral  character,  and  intel- 
lectual propaganda  of  good  literature,  a  physical 
gospel  of  health  and  exercise,  a  recreational  life 
clean  and  wholesome,  a  personal  moral  standard 
of  the  New  Testament  grade — these  are  what  are 
needed  in  Panama  and,  broadly  speaking,  every- 
where else  in  Latin- America.  Once  established 
here  they  will  be  felt  over  a  wide  reach  of  the 
southern  world. 

There  is  a  lot  of  cheap  and  easy  optimism  that 
maintains  that  all  will  yet  be  well  in  some  in- 
definite way.  Some  hopeful  tourists  have  visited 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  251 

Panama  and  taken  the  trip  about  South  America, 
apparently  seeing  nothing  but  the  rainbow  of 
promise  everywhere.  And  these  happy  pilgrims 
have  written  books,  assuring  us  with  a  maximum 
of  glittering  generalities  that  right  is  everywhere 
driving  out  wrong  and  that  all  will  soon  be  well. 
Other  writers  assume  this  attitude  consciously, 
out  of  regard  for  the  interests  that  pay  their  ex- 
penses on  the  trip.  Some  people  write  in  glowing 
terms  from  motives  of  consideration  for  the  feel- 
ings of  their  South  American  friends.  Would 
that  we  might  tell  only  the  bright  sight  of  the 
story !  It  would  be  far  more  pleasant. 

But,  after  all,  the  facts  are  the  irreducible 
minimum  upon  which  to  build  all  successful  pro- 
grams of  reconstruction.  Only  when  we  reach 
the  inner  and  deeper  springs  of  life  and  character 
can  we  hope  to  open  fountains  of  living  waters  for 
the  desert  of  the  human  heart  in  bondage. 
Really  to  know  Latin- America  is  to  believe  in 
its  high  and  fine  possibilities.  What  Latin- 
America  needs  is  a  fair  chance. 

The  end  of  the  last  great  despotism  of  earth 
has  left  democracy  a  triumphant  political  prin- 
ciple in  human  government.  Henceforth  no  na- 
tion may  hope  to  keep  step  with  the  advaajce  of 
mankind  unless  its  political  procedures  are  essen- 
tially democratic.  And  while  South  America 
has  long  had  the  form  of  democracy,  it  now  be- 
comes essential  that  her  republics  develop  the 


252  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

working  reality  of  effective  self-government.  To 
do  this  two  things  are  indispensable.  The  suc- 
cessful democracy  must  be  intelligent  and  must 
find  a  moral  foundation  in  the  free  consciences 
and  minds  of  self -disciplined  citizens.  Spiritual 
despotisms  and  religious  superstitions  never  did 
and  never  will  eventuate  in  a  capacity  for  democ- 
racy. Only  men  who  are  intelligently  free  can 
exercise  the  functions  of  free  governments. 

The  only  working  basis  of  democracy,  in  short, 
is  that  system  of  religious  ideals  which  has  uni- 
formly supported  popular  education,  cham- 
pioned the  rights  of  the  oppressed,  advocated 
self-government,  welcomed  investigation,  and 
maintained  freedom  of  conscience  as  of  higher 
value  than  iron-bound  uniformity  to  prescribed 
standards.  It  requires  but  a  cursory  glance  at 
the  record  of  history  to  know  that  no  working  de- 
mocracy has  ever  survived  the  opposition  of  an 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy  that  has  remained  the 
bitter  foe  of  progress  for  a  thousand  years. 

There  is  more  hope  for  Panama  in  the  little 
Protestant  chapel  down  by  the  Malecon  and  the 
efficient  and  modern  school  maintained  there  by 
the  force  of  missionaries  with  their  progressive 
ideals  than  in  all  the  pageantry  and  glitter  of  a 
system  of  repression  and  despotism  that  the  world 
is  rapidly  outgrowing.  The  religious  Hun  will 
take  his  place  with  the  deposed  political  despot 
who  proposed  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  man- 


INTO  THE  FUTURE  253 

kind.  The  most  urgent  need  of  the  mission  work 
in  Panama  just  now  is  that  of  trained  and  efficient 
Latin  leadership.  No  people  can  be  effectively 
lifted  from  without. 

A  century  ago  nearly  the  whole  of  the  southern 
world  was  in  the  throes  of  political  readjustment. 
Self-government  and  political  freedom  were  the 
watchwords  and  everywhere  strong  men  arose 
and  devoted  their  lives  to  the  task  of  breaking 
from  the  necks  of  the  people  the  political  yokes 
under  which  they  had  staggered  for  two  and  one 
half  centuries. 

To-day  in  Latin-America  the  second  great 
struggle  for  freedom  is  under  way.  Bound 
minds  and  consciences,  superstitions  and  moral 
despotisms — these  are  the  stumbling-stones 
across  the  pathway  of  progress.  All  over  Latin- 
America  men  are  rising  and  enlisting  their  hearts 
and  minds  in  the  struggle  for  free  consciences  and 
independent  judgment  in  the  things  of  the  Spirit. 
Nearly  all  these  countries  achieved  political  inde- 
pendence within  a  few  years.  When  the  climax 
came  it  was  comparatively  sudden,  and  it  may  be 
that  the  breaking  of  the  chains  of  moral  and  spir- 
itual despotisms  will  likewise  be  a  shorter  strug- 
gle than  now  seems  possible.  Once  again  the 
clock  is  striking,  and  who  knows  but  the  end  of 
political  despotism  in  all  the  earth  may  mark  the 
rapid  approach  of  spiritual  democracy  and  high- 
est liberty  in  all  America ! 


254  PROWLING  ABOUT  PANAMA 

Heroic  has  been  the  long  struggle  in  Latin- 
America  for  self-government.  Splendid  is  the 
fight  being  made  to-day  for  larger  liberty.  If 
Pan-Americanism  means  anything  at  all,  it 
means  a  social  foundation  in  honor  and  intelli- 
gence and  brotherhood.  It  is  time  to  address  our- 
selves to  the  great  unfinished  task  begun  by  those 
intrepid  pioneers.  The  Canal  is  finished  and  the 
task  of  construction  is  done,  but  the  end  of  con- 
struction is  the  beginning  of  empire-building  for 
the  larger  task  yet  incomplete. 


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